Trading Fangs
by GwenRhosyn13
Summary: For Caroline Forbes and Sookie Stackhouse life sucks. But what happens when their wish to have someone else's life gets granted? Is the grass really greener on the other side? Will they be able to switch back? Or will they not want to?
1. Chapter 1: The Switch

**AN: So this is my first story. I got the idea when I was comparing how similar Caroline was to Sookie. As far as what shipping is going to be in this I'm not really sure (and I'm open to suggestions.). But I do plan on playing with the fact that Klaus and Eric are very similar. I hope the characters are true to their tv incarnations (although I may take bits of Sookie and the rest of the True Blood characters from the books and I may change some characters to suit my delusional fangirl ideas). Please review and tell me about any flaws you find. I do not own any of the characters or other bits from either show. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy it!**

Trading Places

Chapter 1

Caroline POV

Why did this happen to me?

That's the question I have been asking myself over and over again.

When my parents got divorced, when I became a vampire, when watched my friends suffer through crisis after crisis… When I fell in love with the man of my dreams only to have someone else make me question everything.

Seriously! I can't take anymore! And now I'm going to have to deal with all of the lies, the fighting, and the paranoia while trying to go to college?

I wish I could be normal again. I wish I had someone else's life…

Sookie POV

Why did this happen to me?

It's not enough that I'm telepathic but now I have to become a fairy/vampire? As if my disability didn't make me enough of a freak. If it weren't for the fact that my friends lives are at stake I would be leaving town yesterday.

None of this would have ever happened if I had just let the Rats drain Bill. He would have never broken my heart, I wouldn't have lost Gran like that, and I wouldn't be stuck in the never ending crap storm that is vampire kind.

Anything would be better than this. I wish I had someone else's life…

Third Person POV

Bon Tomps, Louisiana

Sookie sat quietly at her vanity. Dressed in her new black dress, which she had bought just for the occasion, she contemplated her decision and what had brought her to that point.

She fought back tears and reached for her jewelry: two emerald studs and a necklace with a rather large green stone pendant that had been her grandmother's. As she fastened the necklace she wished that she had someone else's life. Anyone else's.

At the same moment she "heard" someone else think the exact same thing. But how could that have happened? She was sure that no one else was in the house.

The stone around her neck began to give off heat. Sookie looked down to see that the stone was glowing. She heard a gasp coming from the mirror and looked up.

What she saw nearly knocked her out of her seat.

The girl in the mirror may have been blonde but it most definitely was not her. She had blue eyes instead of brown and the room behind her was not Sookie's.

The two starred at each other for what seemed like an eternity.

The stone glowed began to glow brighter and brighter until Sookie could no longer see the girl. The heat radiating from the pendant become so intense that she was sure she was on fire.

Then everything went black and all that registered in her mind was the blissful coolness.


	2. Chapter 2: Meet Caroline Stackhouse

**AN: Sorry it took me so long to post the next chapter. I had to figure out how I was going to organize the story so that both story lines match up. I also had a few discussions with my friend about how the whole switch thing is going to work (the mechanics of it, what Care and Sook remember and when they remember it and things like that. She was a great help and I know she's probably reading this right now so I'll ask: would it be funny if I added a pirate? Either one will do! ^_^). I finally just said "Fuck it! Let's see where this takes itself!" I know for a fact that one particular ship is going to happen and another is DEFINITELY not going to happen (I'll try not to make which ones I favor obvious) but I am open to possibilities! =) If you love a certain ship I'd gladly try to work it in if it fits with the story (even if the story ends with that ship at the bottom of the ocean: Looking at you ship I despise... haha! more pirate references!) Right now the story is going to stick pretty closely with the cannon and lines from the shows. Later on it's going to go soooooooo "off book" that we may just have to blame Balthazar or The Doctor for creating such a weird AU. I don't know. When I get to that point I will let my weird flow free. Enough talk! I have rambled enough! I don't own any of the characters, places, or lines from the shows.**

Caroline PoV

Another stressful night at work. Same as always. Having to fight to keep control. It was really wearing me down.

get me wrong, I love my job. Merlotte's is a great place to work (aside from the redneck assholes that drift into the bar every once in a while). But seriously, when you can hear everyone else's thoughts it's had to work in a bar. Especially a small town bar in rural Louisiana. Everyone has their issues and their secrets (and sometimes I think the people around here got a double dose of both).

Tonight I was tired from working a double shift (one of the lunchtime girls had called in sick), I hadn't been able to take my dinner break yet so I was starving, and right now the thoughts of the people in the bar were not helping me feel better. And on top of all of that something felt off tonight.

It was weird. I felt like something big was going to happen. Something that would send my little life into a tailspin...

I stopped myself right then as I leaned up against the food window and set down the glass of beer that I had for table 2.

_What the hell am I thinking? The only big thing that's going to happen tonight is the massive paycheck Sam is going to give me for filling in for Sarah for a week straight. Seriously, I hope he follows through with firing her this time. She's not sick and we all know it. She just takes days off to get over her continuous hangover._

I put the food on a tray, grabbed the beer, and shook of the weird sense of impending… well I'm not sure what but I cleared it from my mind anyway.

I put on my "Sookie Smile" as I rounded the corner into the dining room area. (I call my fake smile that because one of the customers once told me that it made me look like I just ate a too sweet cookie. I tried calling it the Cookie Smile and the Too Sweet Smile but neither sounded right in my head. So I thought 'hey sweet+cookie=sookie right?') As I was expecting I was immediately assaulted by the thoughts of every patron of the bar.

From the guy at table 2 I got:

_ …Just let me have one beer tonight, Jesus. Just one beer, that's all I need. And if you just give me the strength to say "no" to beer number two then I swear…_

Let's be honest. I could tell he was going to fold like a cheap suit once he got halfway through the first one. In fact I think anyone in the bar tonight could, telepathy or no telepathy.

From the woman at the next table over I heard:

_…just stuffing that shit in your face without a second thought. No sir, don't you dare rag about me eating fries. Not after what I did for you in the bedroom last night, which by the way was disgusting although I kinda enjoyed it…_

Umm… EWWW! I did not need to see the particular mental image that came with that! Seriously, some people are just soooo messed up!

I finally reached the booth that I was bringing the food to. The burger on the plate was for a rather sulky looking teenage boy that I already knew just by looking at him that his thoughts were going to test my patience.

_…Who are these people and what the _hell _is this music? I feel like I'm trapped in some hillbilly's oxi-cotton nightmare. Man I cannot wait to get out of this podunk town…_

At that point my patience broke. Insult my customers? Fine, I can't control who comes in here. Insult the music the bar plays? Alright, that's Sam's business since it's his bar. Insult my hometown? That's the line right there. This place was all I knew and this little shit who moved here three years ago (yes, the town is that small. I know _everything_ about _everyone_… well almost everything.) had no right to dis it like that. I was about ready to shout "Then get the fuck out of dodge already!"

But then my gran's voice floated through my head (figuratively, since she was at home).

_Caroline Stackhouse! Don't you dare swear at that young man! It's impolite and un-Christian and you are lady!_

So instead I said:

"Well make sure you do and before it's too late because every year you wait you just get more and more stuck here. Believe me I know."

The instant I finished talking I felt like going back into the freezing and not coming out until the end of my shift. The little "Gran" in my head that acted as my conscience had kept me from saying nasty words when really it should have admonished me not to say anything at all. I had just broken my biggest rule: **DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES REPLY TO ANYONE'S THOUGHTS** (Yes, it deserves to be in bold and all caps because it's that important. Seriously, when I break this rule things get bad really quickly).

The family looked shocked. The kid, scared out of his wits, was wondering how I knew what he was thinking, the mom was speculating on whether I was some secret girlfriend of her son's, and the dad was… thinking about how I looked. Seriously? With his wife right next to him and me acting all weird? _That's_ what he chose to think about right now?

And with that little episode my stress level went to maximum and I felt whatever little control I had over my telepathy go right out the window into the swamp.

I excused myself from the table as every single mental voice in the bar came crashing into my head.

I was not going to be able to last the rest of the night if I kept slipping like this.

I stopped in my tracks and tried to calm myself down. I recited that stupid little saying they teach in elementary school to help you keep your cool in my head. _Stop. Take a deep breath. Count to ten. And go with self-control!_ After I had gotten myself under control I focused in on my "hearing." I imagined turning down the volume of a stereo.

Eventually I managed to make the thunderous noise a dull hum in the background. I took one last deep breath and got back to work with my Sookie Smile back on my face.

**So, Caroline has the last name Stackhouse and works as a barmaid at Merlott's. Logic would lead you to believe that the next chapter would be about Sookie Forbes. Good guess, but no. I plan on finishing off True Blood 1x01 before I move on to The Vampire Diaries just to keep myself organized. Sorry I wasn't able to make the entire episode one big chapter. It's late at night and my bed is calling to me. "Come sleeeeeeeeeeep! This shouldn't be read in a creepy voice at all!" If I stay up any later you may wind up with a poorly spelled fic about Care and Sookie going to Pigfarts and meeting Puff the Magic Dragon on the way there. I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Please review/follow/favorite! And seriously: I LIKE INPUT! TELL ME WHAT YOU WANT TO SEE HAPPEN! I don't want to write a story no one wants to read.**


	3. Chapter 3: The Rats and the Cats

**AN: Hello again! So apparently finishing TB 1x01 is going to take longer than I thought. It's going to be a little challenging getting stuff written in between all of my homework and classes and clubs and crazy fantasy novels that I'm writing with a friend and Supernatural starting up again and catching up on Doctor Who... well I think you get the idea. Because of all of that stuff I'm not going to set a specific period of time to update but I promise that I will try not to make it months in between chapters. I own nothing that you recognize from anywhere!**

"Evening Merlott's." I heard Sam's voice ring out from behind the bar as he answered the phone.

Why is it always when we get busy that people start calling? I internally bet myself twenty bucks that it was Arlene's kids again. I love those kids like their my niece and nephew but seriously, their little habit of calling Arlene every five minutes while she's at work is extremely annoying.

"Hey Tara. Yeah she's right here."

At that point I knew that the call was for me. Tara had been my best friend since we were little kids.

_I'll bet she had another blowout with somebody._ I thought to myself as Sam handed me the phone.

"I am so sorry Sam. She knows not to call me at work."

"Caroline, it's okay. You don't abuse a privilege like Arlene does." He looked as if he would forgive me for just about anything. An unwelcome thought crossed my mind for a split second as I looked at his face.

_Does Sam have a crush on me?_

Along with the thought came the image of some guy. He was blonde, buff as all get out (obviously some kind of jock), and he had the bluest eyes I had ever seen. His face was handsome and… _It had the same expression that was on Sam's face right now._

My mind went spinning so fast that I couldn't pick out any individual thoughts. I could have sworn that I had never seen the guy in my life. So why was I now associating him with my boss who may or may not be crushing on me? And that boy, whoever he was, had looked at me like that. He had been crushing on…

My mind went blank.

_What was I just thinking about? Oh right. Tara's on the phone and Sam just burned Arlene. Get it together Care. Seriously, spacing out? Get a grip!_

Sam's comment was perfectly timed. It was almost comical. Just as he said it Arlene came whipping around the corner with a tray of food.

"Hey!" she snapped "I heard that!"

"I wish you would hear that!" he fired back.

"Please Sam! I have kids!" I could practically see the mental eye roll she was giving him.

Rolling my own eyes I put the phone to my ear.

"This had better be an emergency." I said tiredly.

"I just quit my job." Tara responded. And boy did she sound pissed off.

"Again?" I wasn't really surprised at all. More exasperated than anything else.

"I can't work for assholes!" Yep, that's Tara for you. When the going gets tough, get pissed and uppity.

"Well I'm glad you can afford to be so picky, miss 'Say-hello-to-the-rest-of-us'!"

"Shut up! Sam is not an asshole and he is totally in love with you!" That hit a little too close to home. I immediately recoiled into a defensive mode.

"Tara he is my boss!" I whispered into the phone, praying to God that Sam wasn't listening in on my half of the conversation.

"Jesus Caroline, you need to lighten up!

"Seriously Tara! Could you not use the J word?" I said (more out of habit learnt from my gran than actually caring). "I gotta go."

"I'm coming over. I need a margarita… A big one."

"Bye"

I hung up the phone and handed it back over the bar to Sam.

Just then Dawn, the sluttiest and most stereotypically gorgeous of my fellow waitresses, bustled up next to me.

"Mack and Denise Rattray are just about to sit down in your section." The note of pity in her voice was fairly obvious.

I looked over and felt my night immediately go straight down into the pits of hell.

The Rattrays (or as I call them the Rats) were standing next to one of my booths and they were getting ready to sit down. As I watched Denise adjust herself (or more accurately: feel herself up) Mack slapped her ass. This was, of course, followed by the ever polite phrase "What the fuck?!" coming out of Denise's mouth.

_Classy as usual._ I thought to myself.

There were a number of reasons everyone hated the Rats. They were rude, they were disgusting, and they were about as low rent as you could get (and in Bon Temps that's saying something). None of the waitresses at the bar ever wanted to wait on them. If it was a slow night we would all scramble to go on break so that we wouldn't have to deal with them.

Unfortunately for me it was not a slow night and with Arlene and Dawn both having full sections the Rats had wound up at one of my tables. Some nights life is a bitch.

"Don't let em get to ya, cher." Sam said seeing my obvious distress. "They're not worth it."

_You've got that right! _I thought, too worried over the absolute train wreck that was about to occur in my section to talk out loud.

For what felt like the thousandth time that night I steeled myself and fixed my Sookie Smile in place. This time it was a little harder to keep it there.

As I approached the table I couldn't help but "overhear" Mack's thoughts. He's an incredibly clear broadcaster, most grade A assholes usually are (lucky me right?).

… _ain't nothing on this menu that ain't gonna give me the runs. Damn son of a bi-_

His train of thought cut off and took an abrupt turn as I came up to the table. I mentally cringed because his mind was headed where it always went when I waited on him.

Hiding my disgust I asked "What can I do for you tonight?" and regretted my choice of words immediately.

_You can wrap your sweet lips around my slim reaper, that's what you can do…_

"Well… Why don't we just start out with a pitcher of Bud."

_... then you can hop aboard the Mack express and ride it all the way to heaven…_

Can you say "umm… EW! NO THANK YOU!"?

"Alrighty, anything else?" I said. My impatience and disgust with the waste of space that had the nerve to call himself a man was beginning to leak into my tone. That's when I began to pick up on the thoughts of his (not so) lovely and charming wife.

_… What the hell is wrong with her? God she's pathetic like a dog that's been kicked too many times and just keeps coming back for more…_

"Onion rings. With Mustard." Her tone of voice sounded as if she was asking me if I knew what those words meant instead of placing an order. Seriously? I may be a barmaid but I'm not brain dead!

"Coming right up!" I said a little bit too happily in my haste to escape. I was trying to keep myself from giggling at the thought of finishing that sentence with the word "yours."

I practically ran to the kitchen window to put the order in. As I was putting the ticket on the thing I called "The Carousel" I had an idea of how to get a little revenge on the Rats.

"Hey Lafayette. Could you do me a favor? I have an order of onion rings here that need to get out right away. If you "accidentally" dropped some of them in your haste that's fine by me." (If you asked any of the waitresses at the bar they would deny having done something like this. But between you and me, this happens more often than I'm proud to admit. Tip of the day: you want your food sanity when it arrives at your table? Then don't piss off your waitress.)

"Gotcha" Lafayette said, knowing exactly what I meant.

Looking up from whatever he was preparing he exclaimed "Ooo Caroline! Chicka chicka bow wow! You look like a porn star with that tan and pink lipstick! You got a date?"

That's Lafayette for you. Somehow that drag queen (and I mean that in the most kind, loving, gay-friendly, and _literal_ way… seriously, the guy wears makeup and girls tops! Hello! If that isn't a neon Pride flag I don't know what is!) always manages to make you feel dirty as all get out when he compliments you. But he means well so none of us usually takes the dirty stuff to heart… except for maybe Dawn…

"Sadly, no." I replied. "When I wear makeup I get bigger tips."

That made him laugh.

"Yes girl that's it! These damn rednecks are suckers for packaging" He gave a little wiggle of his shoulders that suggested he was shaking breasts he didn't have.

"And I get even bigger tips when I act like I don't have a brain in my head." I said gloomily. "But if I don't they're all scared of me."

Going straight into what I call his WGBG (Wise Gay Black Guy) mode he said "They ain't scared of you honey child! They scared of what's between your legs!"

"Seriously Lafayette!" I shouted, more out of embarrassment at the blush that was forming on my face than anything else.

At that moment Arlene decided to chime in with "Do you even know what's between a woman's legs Lafayette?"

And then they were off. The banter was flying through the kitchen window so fast that I don't think the Flash could keep up. God knows I tried. I was laughing too hard to hear much more than the word "pussy" and Lafayette saying "People you know."

The whole thing ended with both sides claiming the other didn't know what they were missing, Dawn walking away while slapping her ass, Arlene gesturing to her boobs saying "Peaches and cream", Lafayette pretending to hump the prep table, and me dying of laughter in the middle of it.

One thing was for sure: Gran was NOT going to hear about this part of the night tomorrow morning.

**I hope you liked it! I tried to sort of distance Sookie from Caroline a little in this chapter. Little things like the fact that Sookie can't tolerate swearing (at least in the first season. By season 6 it's pretty much "why hello miss merchant marine! Where did you park your big rig?") but Caroline is okay with it. I also tried to start incorporating the idea of parallels between them (A hug for anyone who can guess who Sam's TVD counter part is). Sorry for cutting out the hilarious back and forth between Laf, Arlene, and Dawn but I felt that it wasn't really necessary to type out the entire thing since I'm already stealing enough from the show as it is.**

**And now I get to answer some questions!**

**Dear Leah,**

**Wish granted! I have updated! (you should think about buying a lottery ticket! I mean mentioning updating on the same day that I was going to... *looks at clock that says 1:30 am Oct 7* Oh well... The point still stands. You may be slightly psychic. Go win the Mega Millions for me.) Thanks so much! I feel a lot better after hearing that you liked the whole TVD/TB switch concept. I actually was a little worried that people wouldn't like it. As for whether or not Caroline will still be a vampire I can only say this: Underneath all of the magic and life switching Caroline and Sookie are still Caroline and Sookie. The real versions of them are still hidden somewhere deep inside of them. I don't want to give away much more than that at the moment (mostly because much of how I get from point A to point Z is still a little foggy). The last thing I would like to add is Eric/Caroline? ERIC/CAROLINE?! ERICAROLINE?! Are you nuts? What kind of writer do you take me for? I am here to write a respectable TVD/TB fanfic... So I of course will be having some Eric/Caroline action. ^_^ I love me some hot viking vamp... *cough* ummmmm... well... moving on... I don't know how steamy it's going to get though. I doubt it's going to be true fanfiction smut material but who knows. I may get carried away when I get to that part.**

**Sincerely wondering if I should seek psychiatric help for my obsession with two 1000 year old, blonde dead guys,**

**(insert name of author here)please picture this as one of those boxes that I would put a sticker with my signature on it in.**

**PS. Me+late night+too much coffee+leveling up my Diablo 2 character for four straight hours=this really random ass and rambling reply to your review. Have a nice day!**


	4. Chapter 4: Mr Mystery Vamp

**_Two posts in 24 hours? What's going on_? I have a huge test tomorrow and I'm procrastinating that's what. Here we get our first look at the Billeaus Vampirica more commonly known as Vampire Bill. See how his brooding nature has captured the attention of the Scumbagleus Raticori. Still following the main plot of TB for now. This chapter is a little longer than the others have been. I own nothing!  
**

_So much for having fun at work. _I thought to myself while slamming my tray down on the bar. After the whole scene with Lafayette was over I had to get back to work. Sometimes I swear God purposely tests my patience to see how much crap I can handle from my customers before I snap. This was one of those times.

Tonight was my night to have numbers 1 through 4 for both tables and booths. Although it had slowed down considerably in the past hour the crowd I had was keeping me on my toes.

I had a lady with a kid, who I could have sworn was part banshee, in booth 1, the Rats in booth 4, a party of ten at tables 2, 3, and 4 (which they had pushed together without asking me if it was alright. Ugh!), and Jane Boadhouse, one of our resident alcoholics who was already drunk as a skunk tonight, at table 1. Thankfully the lady with the kid and the group of ten were on their way out so it looked like I was going to get a bit of a break. If only I could get the Rats to leave too…

Tara, who was in a rather sulky mood even for her, was sitting at the bar staring at her margarita like it was a crystal ball that contained all the answers to life.

"My life sucks." She said when she heard me come up beside her.

"Tara, don't you be feeling sorry for yourself." I chastised her. "That's just lazy."

"But why can't I keep a job?" she asked.

"Maybe because you can't keep your mouth shut?" I returned in my most sarcastic voice.

"Bitch who asked you?!" she said with a wink.

At that both of us laughed. If anyone had just paid attention to our exchange they would have thought we were actually mad at each other. But that's just how Tara is. She has two moods: Sulky/angry and happy/sarcastic.

"How you doing Caroline?" Sam asked as he walked in from the back room.

He likes to check up on all of us during busy nights like this. He's just really nice like that. But sometimes I feel like he checks up on me more than the others. Tara thinks it's because he likes me. I personally think it's because he feels bad for me. Sam is one of the few people who knows about my "gift" even though I've never really told him. Weirdly enough I've never listened to his thoughts. They're there but they're hard to pick out. Unlike Mack Sam is not a clear broadcaster. Besides, listening to the boss' thoughts? Big no no! It's cost me more than one job before and I really like it here.

"I have definitely had better nights." I said shrugging my shoulders.

He could have said "I hope your night gets better." and went back to tending the bar. Instead he looked at me with the same weird expression he had before and said

"Anything I can do to improve this one for you?" His tone of voice was a little more suggestive than I think he intended it to be.

_Holy shit! Did Sam just hit on me?! Oh no, this is so not good! Dating the boss equals big bad trouble!_

For a split second as I looked at Sam in shock I could have sworn that he had blonde hair and sky blue eyes. I blinked and Sam's hair was its normal reddish-blonde color and his eyes were back to a dark almost hazel blue. I forgot the vision as quickly as it came. I had more important things to think about like umm… I don't know… the_ fact that my BOSS just HIT ON ME_!

We sat in an awkward silence for what felt like an eternity but was probably more like ten seconds. Me rapid fire blinking and trying to think of something to say, Tara watching us like her favorite soap opera with a "I told you so" expression on her face, and Sam looking at me with an expression that was almost… hopeful?

In all honesty I was about ready to say something along the lines of "Seriously Sam! If you have a crush on me ask me out already!" But something stopped me.

At that moment I felt a chill run up my spine. The kind of chill that a predator feels when confronted with another of its kind… But how the hell would I know what that felt like? From the look on Sam's face and his body language I knew that he could sense the same thing I did. Curiously Tara didn't react at all to anything, even the subtle change in our body language.

I took a quick peek in her head even though it was against my personal rule about letting my friends have their privacy. Nope, nothing was wrong on her end. As far as she was concerned Sam and I were still having a stare down until one of us caved and confessed attraction to the other. She didn't even notice how tense we were.

Needing a second opinion on the situation I decided to peek into Sam's head as well. This was the first time I had ever done this with him. And what I saw there, or rather what I didn't see, surprised me.

It was as if I was only getting half of a signal. I could gauge the tenor of his thoughts as well as the vague idea behind them, but not the actual words or images that thoughts usually consisted of. Weird…

At any rate, Sam obviously couldn't tell that I knew something was up. Apparently he didn't see the minute changes in expression that I were sure were on my face. In fact, I don't think he could tell that his expression had changed at all. Two things were coming through pretty clear from his head: He wanted to keep his expression neutral and he was MAD. Something had clearly gotten under his skin and he was determined not to let it show.

The chill ran up my spine again. But this time I got the sense that whatever it was causing it was inside the bar. And it was moving toward one of my booths…

I spun around instinctively looking for whatever had given me that sensation.

In less than a second my eyes landed on the only thing in the room that seemed out of place. The handsome man who had just sat down at booth 3. The man who was clearly not human.

At first glance there was nothing out of the ordinary about him. He looked as if he were somewhere in his mid-thirties. Hi clothes were modern and tasteful, an off-white shirt, grey dress pants, and a light brown jacket. He wasn't exactly tall, but he was taller than me. He was handsome in the sense that a girl could see herself marrying a guy like that. Good looking, but not super model good looking. The guy next door.

But at the same time there was something otherworldly about him. I guess that's what tipped me off to what he was.

Although he looked like he was in his thirties the look on his face seemed to say that he was way, way older than that. I was a look that said "I have seen my world die and be replaced by neon signs and cell phones." At closer inspection his clothes appeared to not quite fit in with everyone else's. His pants were slightly the wrong cut, the shirt was the wrong material, and the jacket looked more like part of a suit than anything else. He moved with a kind of easy grace that seem almost _too_ easy. As if he had spent years perfecting the art of movement.

_Vampire!_ A small voice screamed inside of me. _ He is so totally a vampire! And he's here in Merlott's!_

As I watched him his eyes came up to meet mine. In that moment I could have sworn that his eyes had a look in them that said "Oh so this is her." like he'd seen me before but only in pictures.

I over looked that thought because his gaze was doing something else to me. Something that I had only ever felt through the thoughts of other people. I was instantly crushing on him like a teenage fangirl.

It felt like I was made of chocolate and someone had just aimed a blow torch at me. I was melting, MELTING under his stare. At least that's what it felt like. I tried to look away and I just couldn't.

Finally someone walked between us and broke my eye contact and the spell. I whipped back around to face Sam and Tara again. I could still feeling his eyes on my back and I had the strangest premonition that he could hear everything going on in this bar including my now racing heartbeat.

Two emotions warred for my attention in that moment. An ecstatic joy at finally being able to meet one of these creatures, whose existence had only been made known roughly two years ago, and a peculiar sense of dread. A feeling that I should try to avoid this man because he was a threat. The former won out eventually. The latter was just too "out of nowhere" and unjustified for me to really think much of it.

"Oh my God! I think Merlott's just got its first vampire!" I gushed in an excited whisper.

"I think you're right" Sam said. His words were innocent but his tone suggested that maybe he wasn't as keen on a vampire being in his bar as I was.

Completely ignoring his obvious discomfort I continued to gush away at the thought of actually meeting a vampire.

"Seriously! Can you believe it? Right here in Bon Temps! I have been waiting for this since they 'came out of the coffin'!" I said before grabbing my pad and practically skipping over to the booth.

I walked up to the table and for once my smile was genuine. No need for the Sookie Smile when I was actually happy enough to pick the dead guy up and start waltzing around the bar with him.

"H-hi wha-what can I get for you tonight?" I managed to stutter out through my excitement.

"Do you have any of that synthetic bottled blood?" he replied, seeming to not notice my how my obvious giddiness.

_Holy shit I was right! He actually is a vampire! Keep it together Care! Keep the screaming internal!_

It took me longer than it should have to speak.

"No. I'm so sorry. Sam got some but no one ever order it and it went bad…" I trailed off as I realized I was starting to babble.

"You're our first… _vampire!"_ I whispered the last word not wanting the rest of the bar to find out and start a riot. The people in Bon Temps were not very accepting. Racism against black people was only declining because people decided they liked hating vampires more. There was more to actually condemn them for or so said some of the local churches. For some reason I could never buy into any of the hate.

"Am I that obvious?" he said with a small rueful smile.

"I knew the minute you came in. I seriously can't believe that no one else seems to see it."

"He does." he stated, nodding his head toward Sam behind the bar.

"Oh don't worry about Sam he's cool. He supports the Vampire Right Amendment and everything."

"How progressive of him."

He lapsed back into the silent staring from earlier and I started to feel like the room was getting WAY too hot. Had Sam turned the heat up or was it just me?

To break the silence I awkwardly asked "Well… uh… Is there anything else you drink?"

"Actually no." he said. He almost sounded sad.

_Idiot! Of course he doesn't drink anything else! It's not like this is Vampire Diaries or something!_

"But you can get me a glass of red wine so that I have a reason to be hear." he continued in what I saw as an attempt to make me feel a little better about the social faux pas that I had just committed.

"Well I'm glad you're here no matter what the reason." I replied writing "red wine" on my notepad as an excuse to hide the blush that was slowly spreading across my cheeks.

Good Lord! What was happening to me? I feel like a seventeen year old girl, not a twenty five year old woman! How was it that night in and night out I was complimented, hit on, cat called, and checked out by every male in this bar (as well as some of the females) and had never felt a thing for anyone, but all this guy had to do was show up and all of a sudden my insides turn to the consistency of melted butter? Seriously, what was wrong with me?

"Don't mind Caroline mister." an extremely unwelcome voice sounded from the next booth over (three guesses who) "She's crazy as a bed bug."

_As opposed to what Mack? You and your wife? You two will be the picture of sanity when I turn into a gator._ I thought in response. It took all of my will power not to reach out and smack him.

"I'll just get your wine for you." I said in a hurry to make my escape before Mack's other half could join in.

As I left to go get the vampire's wine I noticed how vulture like the Rats were acting. I didn't know what they wanted from him but I was as sure as hell going to find out.

A few minutes later, after I had brought the vampire his wine, I was back at the bar with Tara watching the Rats reach an all-time record low with the poor man as their prisoner. When I had my back turned to go get his drink (that he wasn't going to actually drink) they slipped themselves into his booth.

Denise had her hair swept to one side and was practically throwing her bare neck at the guy. Mack wasn't much better. He looked as if we were watching a porno and it was all he could do to keep from pitching a tent right then and there.

To his credit the vampire was trying to maintain a polite courteousness that was only marred by the fact that every time Denise rolled her head back he would glance hungrily at the pulse her neck. Considering that he planned on coming in here to drink synthetic blood and wasn't able to get any I thought the guy was acting pretty self-controlled. I mean, when I'm hungry I'm seriously hungry. Nothing can get in between me and the nearest food item. I probably couldn't control myself that way if I were a vampire.

"That skank! Do you seriously think she's gonna let him bite her?" I half whispered to Tara.

"You know how many people are having sex with vampires these days?" she asked. Without waiting for a response she continued "Sometimes those people disappear."

I knew she meant it in the sense that hopefully this world would be short a Rat before the night was out but I couldn't help but take offense to the comment. The weird thing was I couldn't think of a reason why _I_ should be offended by the comment. I just did. I justified the feeling by convincing myself I was offended on the behalf on the vampire in the bar. Not all vampires are the same you know…

"No!" I said with a little too much force. "He's not like that."

"Okay you spoke to him for like a minute." Tara countered. "You don't know how many people he's sucked the blood out of over the last however many centuries he's been alive."

"But he's so not scary!" Even though I felt a need to be careful around him I still felt this statement was true. For some reason I couldn't actually see him being able to hurt me.

"Sweet Jesus in heaven Caroline! _He's a vampire!_" Tara almost yelled at me.

There it was again. That weird, irrational anger at her making vampires out to be the bad guys.

I started to defend myself a little too vigorously. "But the synthetic blood has everything-"

"Are you willing to pass up all your favorite foods and spend the rest of your life drinking Slim Fast?" Sam cut in.

My awkward silence was more than answer enough. All three of us knew that the answer was "no."

_But there has to be some way that he goes about feeding without have to kill people. Blood bags? Donors? Some kind of vampire persuasion?_ I thought to myself.

I looked over and saw Denise stroking the vampire's arm and whispering in his ear. From my angle it looked like she was about three inches from molesting him and he was not liking it one bit. I decided to try to rescue him by dropping some not so subtle hints to the Rats that it was time to leave.

"Can I get you guys anything else? Or would you like your checks now?"

At that point I picked up on Denise's thoughts. This was the one and only time that I was ever glad that she and her scumbag of a husband were such clear broadcasters.

…_not that big but he's still probably got eleven or twelve pints in him. Holy shit! That's almost 200 oz! I bet we could get 500 an ounce in Dallas. Fuck me! That's $10,000! Sweet Jesus…_

It took me a second to process what was happening. Mack and Denise trapped vampires, drained their blood, and sold it as a recreational drug. I knew that the Rats were the scum of the Earth but I never considered that they had sunk low enough to become drainers. Hell I didn't even think that we would even have drainers here in Bon Temps. That was stuff that belonged in big cities like New Orleans. Not here.

Freaking out I abandoned all pretense of trying to get them to leave. I had to make them stay at least long enough for me to be able to warn the vampire.

"You know what? I'm gonna bring you a free round of beer!" I said almost hysterical with my urgency to keep them from leaving with the vampire. Looking directly at him I practically yelled "Don't you go anywhere!" desperately hoping that he would understand what I was trying to imply.

I ran back to the kitchen to get reinforcements. I had a feeling that if it came to it I would have to stop the Rats by sheer force. Tara was the first person I saw.

"Tara we have to stop them!"

"Stop who? Why?"

"The Rattrays! They're going to drain him and sell his blood! We have to help him!"

"No we do not! We don't have to get anywhere near that vampire!"

Okay, that was it. I had had it with Tara's closed-mindedness and it was high time that she knew it!

"Seriously Tara?! I cannot believe you and your small mindedness!" I took a breath to start on the next part of my "vampires are people too" rant when Sam interjected.

"Caroline, a vampire can take care of himself, I promise you."

At that moment I realized that the "sense" I had of said vampire was gone. I whirled around to find the booth empty.

"Oh Shit!" I yelled.

Panic for the vampire seized me and I dropped my apron and ran out the door without a backward glance at my boss who was surely going to either fire me or call the town morgue to come get my body. Either way I was so not coming into work tomorrow.

**So Caroline is sorta defensive about vampires... hmm... WHAT COULD THAT POSSIBLY MEAN HINT HINT COUGH HINT! Also just to make one thing clear: Caroline is acting like this around Bill because she honestly doesn't remember ever having a real crush on anyone. Feeling like this is "new" to her. And no, it's not love at first sight. Love takes time to develop. It's crush at first sight. At heart Caroline is still a 17 year old girl. The reason why it's Bill specifically is because Bill is paralleling someone that Caroline knows from her real life just like Sam was paralleling someone. You get a virtual cookie if you can guess who. If you haven't guessed already Caroline's true life is going to start poking through little by little. At some point she will remember who she really is and hopefully if I do it right it will make you cry. I've decided that where I start deviating from the plot (as far as TB goes) is going to be after she meets Eric. Be prepared for some major time jumps a head in both the TB and the TVD plot(when I actually start it). The story is moving a bit too slow for my taste but I felt it was important to do the entire first episode since it sets up so much for later. I hope you enjoyed this chapter!**


	5. Chapter 5: Caroline to the Rescue

**Sleep? What's that? Oh well, while I'm having a little bit of insomnia I might as well write the next chapter! Last time we met Bill who went with the obviously sketchy Rats out into the parking lot (like that was ever going to end well. I call either bullshit or stupidity on this one.) and Caroline ran out into the night after him. Time for Care to get in touch with her inner badass. As usual: Anything you recognize is not mine.**

I crashed through the door and into the parking lot. The cool night air (well, as cool as night air gets in Louisiana during summer) hit me as soon as I cleared the threshold.

Normally it would have felt cool and refreshing to me after the heat and noise of the bar. But for some reason, I don't know whether it was the extreme situation or what, it felt too warm and wet against my skin. Even in the pretty minimal white T-shirt and black shorts combo that made up my summer uniform (which usually was rather cool) I felt as warm as if I were wearing sweats and a long sleeve shirt. Had it always been this hot and humid?

I didn't have long to dwell on it seeing as I had a vampire to find _who was currently being drained by the couple from hell._

I mentally kicked myself for standing there like an idiot and immediately started listening and _listening _for any signs of the Rats.

I _heard_ Denise's thoughts before I heard their soft rustling and almost inaudible murmurs.

_… DAMN! This is gonna bring a pretty penny! We should keep some for ourselves although if Mack freaks out on me again I am so though with him…_

They were at the far end of the parking lot, near the back driveway that almost no ever used since town was on the other side of the bar. A few rows of cars and a couple of bushes were all that separated me from the worst excuse for a "Bonnie and Clyde" couple that had ever walked the earth.

From where I was I couldn't see them but I could almost hear them. If someone had come out here not knowing what I knew they probably would have assumed that it was an animal or maybe a couple of teenagers messing around. From here it really didn't sound like anything worth checking out. I guess that vampire was lucky I was here. Anyone else would have kept on walking.

I started to run towards where they were hiding but stopped about halfway there.

_Seriously? What the hell am I thinking? Taking on not one, but two crazies who are probably on something with nothing but my bare hands?_

As much as I could actually see myself doing just that, my logical side one out and I looked around me for some kind of weapon.

_Two by four? No, too clumsy. Pipe from Sam's railing? Nah, it's too rusted and he's mad enough at me as it is. Better not destroy part of his bar. Shovel? Too heavy for me to use quickly enough… BINGO! That's what I need!_

I spotted the chain that my brother, Jason, kept in the back of his truck (for what reason I'm not sure. Something about a fight he wanted to be ready for. I don't tend to listen when he rants about it). Jason had come to the bar earlier in the night and left with Maudette Pickens. He wouldn't miss it until the next morning… maybe even the next day. Besides, he would have wanted me to use it.

I picked it up off the bed of the truck gingerly, trying to keeping from clanking and giving me away. My only chance was to surprise them.

Keeping stealth in mind I crept up to the bushes at the end of the parking lot.

As I got closer the voices of the Rats became louder. They weren't bothering to whisper now but I doubt that even a scream would carry back to the bar from here. And even if someone did hear it and came running they would probably walk away once they saw what was happening.

Vampires are not popular in Bon Temps. Neither are drainers. But you can guess which one will get the free pass based on species from the locals.

I don't think any of that ran through either of their minds at the time. They were too preoccupied with their latest victim. Denise felt uncomfortable about being out in the open and Mack seemed to be going through some kind of intense withdrawal for something he called "v juice."

"… I just need to get it in me!" He whined as I got to a point that I could see them. Unfortunately I was sure that they could see me too, if they bothered to look my way at all.

"Dammit Mack! You're a fucking drug addict! You know that?" Denise snapped back.

I took the opportunity to scout out the situation.

They had the vampire tied down somehow, but I couldn't see any rope. And there was a weird burning smell. Mack was pacing back and forth staring down at him with a look on his face that screamed "addict that's gone too long without a fix." Denise was kneeling beside the vampire fiddling with a bunch of shady looking medical equipment that looked like something she had stolen out of the trash of a blood drive. Next to the prone vampire were bags of what I assumed could only be his blood. Gross!

The poor vampire was obviously in pain and his fangs were extended.

_Holy crap they actually have fangs!_ I thought in a moment of shock and surprise. Shock at seeing them and surprise that I was shocked at all. He was a vampire after all.

As a paused watching the vampire he looked at me. I don't mean he causally glanced at me. His eyes actually widened in surprise that I had actually followed him out of the bar. For a moment I almost thought I saw a smile ghost across his features…

After the initial surprise at seeing me he gave me a kind of pleading look. A look that said "I am sooooo far in over my head." I had to act quickly.

"Woman would you just shut the fuck up? Some times when you talk this is what I hear: Aaaahhhyidayidayida-"

Mack didn't get to finish what I'm sure was a truly eloquent impersonation of his wife because at that moment I heaved the chain up and brought it down squarely in the middle of his back. He went down like a ton of bricks.

"You crazy bitch!" He shouted standing back up.

_Dammit! I should have hit him on the head!_

At that moment my blood ran cold as he pulled a knife out of his boot. Chain or no chain. I didn't stand a snowball's chance in hell. He knew how to use his knife. I only barely knew how to use the chain from watching kung fu movies. I was a good as dead.

He got in one good swing which I somehow managed to dodge before my instincts took over. I took the chain and threw it at him with a dexterity and strength that I never knew I had. It wrapped completely around his neck nearly choking him. Talk about "fight or flight."

He fell to the ground dropping the knife.

Not wanting to miss an opportunity I scooped it up. I literally had just thrown away my only weapon and I didn't want to be stuck bringing fists to a knife fight.

Apparently I had moved surprisingly fast because Denise was looking at me like I had just teleported the two feet between where I had been and where I was now. The look on her face only half registered because I was too high on adrenaline to really care.

I held the knife out in front of me as she began to make a move towards me.

"This ain't your business you stupid cunt!" She snarled.

"Okay seriously? That kind of language just proves how low rent you really are!" I hissed back with none of the fear that I actually felt.

"You have any idea who you're messing with? You don't wanna be on my bad side." She said, trying to intimidate me.

I actually laughed out loud. As scared as I was, I was absolutely positive that there were far more dangerous things out there than her.

"Get over yourself!" I spat at her. "What makes you think that your 'bad side', assuming that you even have a 'good side', is seriously going to scare me?"

Something in my tone scared her enough to make her back down. She immediately began to behave just like a rat. Desperate to scuttle away at the slightest sign of danger. Apparently my nickname was more accurate than I had originally thought. She made to grab for the bags of blood.

"Oh no! Don't you even think about it!" I said. My tone made it perfectly clear that if she didn't leave it where it was there was going to be violence. Somehow we both knew that, knife or no knife, if it came to a fight I would win now that Mack was out for the count.

"I will kill you for this." She said menacingly while attempting to stare me down.

Something kicked in then. Some extra adrenaline fueled extension of my telepathy I think. I actually felt my mind push itself into hers. I saw her pupils dilate. Was it from fear? Or was something else going on?

"Get out now." I commanded in a low even tone that I didn't even recognize. It had this kind of unquestionable authority that I didn't even know I could produce. But the craziest part of it was that for that one sentence I lost the sweet Northern Louisiana accent that I had always had. It was replaced with a different accent. One that I had trouble pinpointing but had the distinct sensation that I'd heard it somewhere before. But it was definitely my voice. It felt almost… right? That scared the shit out of me.

Denise pulled me out of my panic by surprising me. She actually listened to me and was starting to leave. But something was off about the way she was moving.

"Come on Mack." She said. It sounded as if she was almost half in a dazed as well as half pissed off. "This ain't over."

She forced Mack into a standing position and immediately turned on her heel and started walking away. It seemed like she couldn't get away fast enough. She left her husband in the dust but kept looking back to see if he was keeping up. She obviously didn't want him anywhere near me by himself but she couldn't seem to turn her feet around or quit yelling increasingly rude demands for him to hurry up and leave with her.

_What the hell just happened?_ I thought. I had never had anything like that happen before. But then again I had never been as stressed out and full of adrenaline and anger like that before. Maybe that was some weird extension of my telepathy? I had reached out and touch her mind in a way that had caused her subconscious to take over and get away at any cost? Even in my head that didn't sound quite right. It hadn't felt like that at all.

I suddenly remembered that there were more pressing issues to attend to at the moment like _the drained vampire who was still lying on the ground in obvious torment._

_Way to be totally self-centered there Care! The guy is practically dying and you're more concerned about what you did to freak Denise out for the tenth time tonight!_

I bent down and did a quick inspection of the vampire.

He was in fact being held down as I had suspected. But what was holding him down was what surprised me. It was a relatively thin silver chain draped across his wrists, ankles, and neck. Where it made contact with his skin there appeared to be a lot of burns and blood. I surmised that that's where the burning smell had been coming from. It didn't take a lot to figure out that I needed to remove the silver.

I began pulling the chain off carefully like some bizarre Band-Aid. The entire time he let out little hisses of pain but didn't ask me to stop. Since he wasn't screaming I just ignored the small sounds of pain. Smoke rose where I removed it and pieces of his skin actually came off with the chain. EW!

When I had gotten the last of it off his bare skin he let out a sigh and his fangs clicked back into wherever they had been hidden before.

I gave him another once over to make sure I had gotten all of the chain and saw that the bloody burns that the chain had caused were healing.

"Oh my God." I said in awe. A little voice inside me, whose origin was a mystery to me, chimed in with _You knew that was going to happen. Don't pretend to be impressed._

As I was staring at the healing wounds, wondering why I was suddenly getting a weird feeling like I had seen this before, I heard the sound of a car engine. From the corner of my eye I saw headlights point in our direction.

I looked up at the car. It was the Rat's.

Denise may have taken my command to leave, but it didn't mean she wasn't going to leave with a bang. Denise never let anything go lightly.

She was revving up her engine to go tearing out of the parking lot and the vampire and I were just close enough to the driveway that she could easily run us over… which I could tell from her mind was exactly what she planned to do.

**So what just happened with Denise? Was it really Care's telepathy being supercharged with adrenaline? Or did her tone just compel her to leave? Next time we actually get to talk to Bill and Care is going to get more memory flashes... but are they hers or someone else's? Review please! And if you like it follow and favorite! As always suggestions are more than welcome.**


	6. Chapter 6: Silver and Blood

**Here we go! Caroline's first real conversation will Bill (I don't count the scene inside the bar because it was kinda brief). I hope the name references get a chuckle! I own nothing but the insides of Caroline's head (that doesn't sound weird at all! *sarcasm cough*)**

I had maybe a second, if that, to react. I grabbed the vampire underneath the arms and hauled him off of the side of the driveway out of the path of Denise's car. And just in time too. If I had hesitated the vampire and I would have been turned to pancakes.

"I'm gonna get you bitch!" Denise yelled out her window when she realized that she wasn't going to be able to hit me. For some reason that threat touched some nerve in me. I felt a foreboding chill. Somehow I knew she would make good on her threat.

For a brief second a vision of Denise and Mack standing over me flashed in front of my eyes. They were beating the shit out of me and I could almost actually feel the pain from it. No wait… It wasn't me. It was…

My mind blanked again for the second time that night. I instantly forgot the little episode and turned my attention to the weakened vampire that I was still holding by the arms.

Leaning him up against a nearby tree I immediately began apologizing and checking him over to see if moving him had caused any damage. It looked like it hadn't but I couldn't be sure.

"I am so, so sorry that I didn't get here faster! You're going to be okay in a minute right?" I mean his wounds from the chain had already disappeared. Didn't that mean that the rest of him would heal eventually too? Some gut instinct told me that it wasn't that simple. If I wasn't careful I would end up as his midnight snack.

He gave me a look that confirmed my fear that a little more than time was needed for him to be back to a 100%.

"Do you want me to leave?" I asked. Honestly, a part of me wanted him to say yes so that I could run away to the relative safety of the crowded bar. But the part of me that loves projects and fixing things and taking care of people didn't want to leave him here where the Rats, or any of the other vampire hating citizens of this town, could easily attack him. He may be a vampire but let's face it, he was not in fighting shape at the moment.

"No. They might come back and I can't fight yet." He said following the same train of thought as I was.

Just then barking came from somewhere behind me. I twisted my head around to see the old stray dog that always hung around the bar (so much so that all of the waitresses were pushing Sam to just adopt him already) running excitedly toward us.

He came right up next to me and began barking at the vampire.

"Hey there buddy!" I giggled as he began licking the side of my face.

He then barked a few more times at the vampire and it almost sounded like a dad giving a warning to a boy who wants to date his daughter. For some reason Sam's face flashed across my mind while he was barking. Weird. After he finished he slinked off back in the direction of the bar.

"He's checking on you." The vampire commented. What was with the tone? He found something about the dog amusing but I couldn't figure out what.

"Oh, that's just some old stray that hangs around the bar sometimes. We think he's living somewhere nearby. We keep tell the owner to just adopt him already since he feeds him and plays with him all the time anyway."

"Oh no doubt he should." There was that tone again. Did he know something I didn't?

Looking down from his face I noticed that he still had one of those things they use to make your vein stand out still tied around his arm. I reached over to undo it and he abruptly flinched away. I knew he didn't mean to hurt my feelings. It was understandable that he wouldn't really trust humans right now. That and I think his pride was a little hurt that he couldn't save himself. But it still hurt.

So being me I blurted out the first thing that passed through my mind.

"Wow, I take it you're not too happy that you got saved by a girl!"

"Thank you." He all but whispered. I could practically see the walls of polite courtesy sliding behind his eyes. Crap! I had hurt his feelings!

_Great Care! Real smooth! Can't keep your mouth shut for one second can you? You always have to say something that makes things worse!_

In an effort to try a find out what I could do to take it back I decided to listen in on his mind. But the problem was I didn't hear anything.

I could almost sense his mind. It was almost like a silent vibration that I could somehow feel through the air. That must have been what I had felt before in the bar. But beyond that I got nothing. Not a mood, a picture, or even a word. It was just blank. He could obviously think and something was going on in his head but I couldn't pick up on any of it. All I got was a sensation of a vibrating void in my telepathy.

"I can't hear you!" I blurted out excitedly, not stopping to think about how that would sound to him.

He looked up at me perturbed as he undid the rubber strap. His face clearly displaying his annoyance at the fact that he thought I was being a bitch about it.

"_Thank you."_ He said a little bit louder.

"No I heard that, and you're welcome, but I can't _hear _you!" I said trying to clarify. I didn't stop to think about the fact that he didn't know I could hear people's thoughts. I was too excited to find someone who I couldn't hear. It was kind of soothing, like jumping into a pool on a hot day. I didn't have to try to tune his thoughts out to hear my own. It was great.

Just to be sure that I was actually hearing nothing from him I decided to make skin to skin contact with him. Doing this with most people for longer than a second usually resulted in me being totally unable to shield myself from their thoughts. Sometimes I could actually see or hear things that normally I wouldn't pick up on such as a physical sensation, my own face through their eyes, or even those undercurrents of thought that don't actually have words or pictures to them. Maybe his thoughts were just really hard to pick up on?

I grabbed the sides of his face and starred into his eyes willing myself to reach out with my telepathy. It was his turn to feel uncomfortable under an intense stare.

I got a whole lot of nothing. Blissful, quiet nothing. He could be thinking that I was crazy or that he was going to kill the Rats or that I looked like someone he knew and I would have no idea. For the moment I didn't have to worry about knowing things I shouldn't. No judgments, no having to keep secrets that weren't mine. No pressure.

"Aren't you afraid to be alone with a hungry vampire?" he asked. He must have honestly thought I was crazy by the way I was acting (and I would never know for sure unless he told me!).

"No." I knew I should be but the fear just wasn't there.

"Vampires often turn on those who trust them you know." He said. He almost seemed sad about it. It sounded like he was trying to warn me away. "We don't have human values like you."

For some reason that statement personally offended me for no apparent reason. It was just like what happened with Tara earlier. Why was I offended by negative comment about vampires? I was human. It shouldn't have mattered to me but it did.

I suddenly became aware of just how close I was to his face and I quickly pulled away.

"Human's turn on those who trust them too." I replied hotly standing up. I walked over to a stump a few feet away, sat down, and wrapped the chain around my neck. It worked on him before didn't it? "Besides, do you seriously think I'm a total idiot?"

"Oh but you have other juicy arteries. There's one in the groin that is a particular favorite of mine." He said suggestively, implying that the chain would save my neck but not the rest of me.

"Seriously? You might be a vampire but that does not give you the right to talk nasty like that to me! I think considering the fact that I just saved your life you should talk to me like the lady I am!" He had managed to find one of the few things that could actually put me in a rage. I was Caroline Stackhouse dammit and no one talked about me like that! (At least not to my face.)

He looked at me for a moment and then nodded as if in agreement. He didn't apologize though, that made me even angrier. I crossed my arms and looked pointedly anywhere but at him and waited for the apology that I knew was not coming. I was acting like a teenager but I didn't care.

"Do you want to drink the blood they collected?" he said out of the blue.

_WHAT? Hell no! Seriously? Did he really just ask me that? Why would I even want to?_

I held in my surprise at the question and answered simply "No!"

"I understand it make humans feel more healthy." He continued, pressing the issue. "Improves their sex life."

_Okay, what's his deal? _I thought. _Why is he pushing his blood on me? Is he just trying to repay me or is he trying to pull something?_

"Well, I'm as healthy as a horse and don't really have a sex life so thanks, but no thanks." I said as flippantly as I could trying to shake off the weirdness of this conversation.

"You could always sell it." Okay, seriously. What the hell?

"I wouldn't touch it with a ten foot poll. I wouldn't feel right about it."

Suddenly he got up. He moved fast. Fast enough that he blurred in my vision.

As he got right up in my face (seriously? It's called personal space!) something else appeared before my eyes. It was him. But it wasn't him at the same time.

In the vision he looked older. Well he _seemed_ older. Physically he looked the same (apart from a haircut and change of clothes). It was his eyes that showed that some time had passed. This version of him had seen some shit for sure. He had a small vile in his hand that he drank from.

Suddenly he was stark naked and covered head to toe in blood. He growled and then lurched forward.

His sudden touch on my arm snapped me back into the real world. The vision began slipping from my memory until… _Wait, what was I just thinking? Wow, he's really close…. And kinda cute… He could lean forward an inch and kiss me… or rip my throat out…_

He was staring at me again like he had inside the bar. My body couldn't choose between fear and swooning. So it settled for a state of nervous tension that could go either way depending on what he decided to do next.

"What are you?" he said with an intensity that was both extremely sexy and utterly terrifying at the same time. _Holy crap! How the hell can he do that?_

"W-well… umm… I'm a w-waitress…" I managed to stutter out.

_Shit! I sound so stupid! That's obviously not what he meant! Wait a sec… What did he mean "what are you?"_

I couldn't quite get my mouth to ask him what he meant. Whatever his stare was doing to me had severed the connection between the logical part of my brain and the part that actually controlled what I said.

Instead what came out was "I-I'm C-c-caroline Stackhouse and I'm a-a waitress. What's your name?

_Great! If I didn't sound like an idiot before I do now! After this is over I'm going to crawl into a hole and die of embarrassment! That is assuming that he doesn't kill me first!_

"Bill." He replied with all seriousness.

At that point I lost my shit. It had been a long day, I had worked a double shift, been sexually harassed through a customer's thoughts, met my first vampire (who made me feel like a teenager with a crush), fought off the Rats to save said vampire, escaped death twice, and sat out under the stars with one of the world's deadliest creatures all in one night. And to boot I was pretty sure that there were pieces of my day that had gone missing from my memory. At that point the fact that his name was Bill was the funniest thing I had ever heard. I began laughing so hard that my sides hurt.

"Bill?" I wheezed after the guffaws started to die down. "I was expecting something like Lestat, or Damon, or Stefan maybe. But Bill? _The vampire Bill!_" I managed to snicker out. He didn't look too pleased at his name being made fun of.

After my laughter died down completely there was an awkward moment of silence.

"So, silver huh? That's your kryptonite? I thought that was werewolves and shape shifters." I said trying to break the silence. "I mean that's what you always see in the movies and on tv."

"I'd appreciate it if you didn't share this information with anyone." He replied gravely. "We don't like for our weaknesses to be made public knowledge."

"No problem. I get it." No need to add that if people like the Rats knew about it then it was already well on its way to being public knowledge.

Standing up I checked my watch. Holy crap! I had been out here for nearly twenty minutes. If I didn't get back to work Sam was going to have a cow. I was usually the waitress who had her shit together and alphabetized to boot. Tonight was pretty much ruining that track record (even if the only customer I had at the moment was alcoholic Jane). I was already walking on thin ice running out like that. I probably had already lost my job but hey, no need to make Sam angry enough to fire me if I hadn't.

"Well Bill, I've got to get back to work. If I was my own boss I would have fired myself by now for slacking off." I gave him a small apologetic smile.

Without looking back at him I started back toward the bar. I could feel his eyes on my back as I walked. I unwound the chain from my neck so that people wouldn't ask about why I had it and why it happened to be covered in blood. I checked my uniform for any sign of the fight and found that it was miraculously clean. A huge smile spread across my face as I reflected on the night's events.

I had just met my first vampire and saved him. It was terrifying, bloody, violent, and unnerving in several ways. But God could strike me down if I ever for a moment told anyone anything other than the truth. It was definitely the greatest night of my life so far!

**I hope this part flowed well. Unlike the others it wasn't written all at once. I thought it would be interesting for Caroline to see not only her own memories but Sookie's as well. She'll be seeing things that are kinda "flash forwards" but at the same time aren't because eventually she'll veer away from Sookie's path (sorry no Billith or Warlow in this story because it won't be getting that far. I'm probably going to end it some time around Season 3 or 4 for TB but some events will be majorly changed). Sookie will have the same thing happen in the TVD universe as well. I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Please review!**


	7. Chapter 7: Dream a Little Dream

**Meant to have this up a little sooner but my birthday happened (still didn't get the madman with a box, the moose, the kitten, and the tiger that I asked for but I did get a complete official replica Hogwarts uniform!). Last time Bill introduced himself and Care drove off a couple of Rats. The question of the night is "What happened after?" Well, see for yourself! This part gets a little steamy toward the end but isn't straight up smut. I hope I wrote it well. List of character/places/story & line from the show that I own: none.**

"Caroline!" Sam's voice rang out. It startled me and I felt a twinge of something that barely qualified as anxiety. Was he going to tell me to not bother coming in tomorrow? Did I just lose my job by being a Good Samaritan? Oh well, he couldn't ruin my mood tonight. I had just saved a vampire. I felt invincible.

"Thank God! Are you okay?" he sighed when he saw me round the last line of cars. From the look on his face I could tell he wasn't pleased with me, but no I hadn't lost my job. The relief only added to the high sensation that I was already feeling. I felt almost giddy.

"I'm fine! More than fine actually!" I replied. The smile on my face was so huge it hurt but wasn't forced (an unusual occurrence for me). With a voice that clearly said _I told you so _I added "And FYI mister: not all vampires can take care of themselves!"

Having proven my point (at least in my mind) I skipped back into the bar to finish up my shift. Jane was probably blind drunk and needed me to call her son to come get her, Arlene and Dawn were probably going to kill me because they had to cover my section, and Tara was probably going to make some comment about the vampire but I didn't care.

Right now the bar could catch fire and I wouldn't care. Okay, that might be an exaggeration but that's how I felt at that moment.

I finished my shift in a happy daze which I only snapped out of for a second when I saw that Tara was apparently tending bar for some reason (wasn't that Sam's job tonight? And when the hell did Tara apply for the job and not tell me? I'd take it up with her later).

As usual I was the first one done with my clean up (I attribute that to my slightly neurotic need for order and efficiency). I left the bar before everyone else was done because I was pretty sure that they were going to start talking about how concerned they were for me. Honestly, I couldn't have cared less what they thought. I just didn't want to ruin my good mood.

A few minutes later I was pulling up to the sprawling old farm house that was the Stackhouse family home.

My family had lived on this piece of land for generations (possibly before Bon Temps was even founded, we're not sure). Throughout the years different members of the family had built several different houses that had been burnt down, added to, remodeled, burnt again, torn down, built back up, expanded, and changed. The result was an odd looking structure that looked as if someone had stuck pieces of other houses onto an old farm house.

It wasn't grand and it needed quite a bit of work done (paint was peeling, shutters hanging on by prayer and some bubble gum, crooked steps, rusty tin roof that leaked if it wasn't replaced every other year, and stuff like that) but it was home.

For all its imperfections I did love that house with its flaked white paint and tin roof (that my gran was oh so determined should stay even if it was impractical). Besides, it wasn't like we had the money to actually fix the things that weren't perfect (which secretly killed me inside, don't tell Gran). I had to love it because it was what I had.

I wasn't like Elena Gilbert from that Vampire Diaries show on the CW. I hadn't seen much of the show (Tara watched it religiously, which I found weird for her since she apparently hated vampires, and forced me to watch with her every once and a while) but I had seen enough to know that that girl had more money than I ever would. I didn't have a beautiful pristine, Victorian home with a modern kitchen that always seemed clean no matter what happened (why she would torch it even without her emotions was beyond my understanding. It was beautiful). And I most definitely didn't have a boyfriend with a mansion for a house (Boarding house? Seriously? You call _that _a boarding house?). If I'm being honest I would have to say that I was jealous of their houses. They were old _and _amazing. Mine was just old.

Still, I was content to live in that house. It was clean due to my excessive habit of keeping everything spotless (something I think my gran had encouraged when I was little to help me cope with my stress and grief over the loss of my parents) and it was comfortable enough for being so old. It had a certain charm about it even if I thought that charm could be enhanced with a face lift.

I walked into the small, outdated kitchen in to find my gran waiting up for me with one of her romance books that she calls her "novels."

"Hey Gran! You are never going to guess what happened tonight!" I said excitedly.

She paused for a minute as she took in my demeanor. Then unexpectedly she cried out in a voice that was almost pure joy.

"You've got a date!"

_Where did she get _that_ from?_ I thought.

I felt kind of bad that it wasn't true. I didn't date much… okay, at all and my gran saw that as her not having any possibility of grandchildren (because let's face it. Jason was too much of a player to be settling down anytime soon). She understood that because of my telepathy finding someone worth dating was hard for me (I have to find someone who's thoughts I can stand) so she didn't say anything. But I still knew.

Her biggest dream in life was seeing me find someone wonderful, fall in love, and have a family. All she wanted was for me to feel normal for once in my life. As a result any time she thinks a "gentleman" has shown interest in me or has caught my eye she gets very excited. Sometimes she jumps the gun and sees something where there was nothing, kinda like tonight.

"Um, sorry Gran. No. A vampire came into the bar!" That caught her by surprise.

"Oh! Did he have fangs?" She asked. She sounded almost as enthusiastic as I had been. This was new gossip and Adele Stackhouse had a thing for gossip.

"Yeah but most of the time they stayed put away."

"Did he bite anybody?" Her question wasn't accusing at all. She simply wanted to know the facts. Curiously my gran seem to lack the same hatred and mistrust of vampires that I did, even if she wasn't always politically correct about them. And people wonder where I get my tolerance from…

"No, he just had, well, _ordered_ a glass of wine. He didn't drink it though. I think he just wanted some company."

"You like him?" Oh no. Here we go again. She was angling for a reason to think I was seeing someone. Did my body language really say that much about my crush on him? I hadn't even noticed that I was giving of any signals. Sometimes I wondered if my gran was slightly psychic. I knew she wasn't a telepath like me but sometimes I swore she knew things she shouldn't. I felt a telltale blush rising in my cheeks.

_Don't get her hopes up Care! Hell! Don't get your own up! It's not going to happen!_

I realized at that point part of me had thought that maybe, _maybe_ something could happen with Bill. I tried to squash that part before it could get any bigger. Nothing was going to happen and I knew it. For crying out loud! I didn't even know if I would ever see him again!

"He was… really interesting…" I said lamely trying to be evasive. Gran wasn't buying it.

_Run! Run now! Before she calls you out!_ The little voice in my head screamed.

"I'll let you get to bed Gran." I said kissing her on the cheek.

"Good night honey!" If she wasn't my gran I would have described the look on her face as being the biggest shit eating grin I had ever seen. She was definitely pleased that I finally had a genuine crush.

I quickly retreated to my room taking the cat, Tina, with me. I got my favorite night shirt on and crawled into bed. I thought I would feel sore after such a long day but I didn't. I only felt tired. I drifted off seconds after my head hit the pillow.

_I woke up what felt like a few minutes later to find my window open. I had definitely not left it like that. I got up to investigate._

_ Bill was standing in the yard beneath my window. Wait. Did he open my window? But how? I was on the second floor. Could vampires fly like they did in the stories?_

_ He was staring at me again but it was different than before. It was warm… No it was practically steaming… the look basically was inviting me to come down to him… where anything could happen… OH MY GOD! He was giving me the sex look!_

_ Normally I would have gotten pissy and upset over it (I'm a person! Not a sex toy! HELLO!) but right now it was making me feel really weird._

_ My breath seemed to not actually be reaching my lungs, my head felt light, my face and chest felt unbearably hot, and a somewhat uncomfortable tingle mixed with heat was forming between my legs. Wait a sec. Was I _turned on_?!_

_ I had of course heard the thoughts of people who were "turned on" but apparently there was a huge distinction between how it registered in people's thoughts and how it actually felt._

_ It was an itch I couldn't scratch because it was heat, not an itch. It was pressure and weightlessness at the same time. But most of all it was heat, burning white hot heat._

_ How the _hell_ could he do that just by looking at me?_

_ I don't know why but I suddenly found myself walking down the porch steps in my night robe._

_ Wasn't I just upstairs? Did I space out again?_

_ I ran out into the yard looking for him. He was nowhere to be found."_

_ "Bill? Where did you go? This isn't funny!" I yelled._

_ Sensing something behind me I spun around. And he was there._

_ He had changed his clothes. The ripped shirt and dirty black pants had been replaced with a new button down dress shirt and dress pants that both seemed to be different shades of grey in the moonlight. It looked good on him._

_ "Oh, hi." I said in surprise._

_ He didn't say anything. He just kept up the stare that was turning my insides to the approximate temperature of the sun and _started taking off his shirt._ Apparently, whatever I was feeling he was feeling too._

_ This was going to happen, right here, right now… on my lawn? Okay, not my ideal location but all the same, good bye V card!_

_ "I… I never thought I'd be having sex with you… at least not so fast…" I breathed as I started taking off my robe. Where the hell did that come from? I usually didn't talk like that._

_ "Who said anything about sex?" he said ominously as he began licking his now extended fangs._

_ At that moment his face changed. He still had brown hair but the shape of his face was different. His hair was more modern. His face was younger too and his eyes were the most startling shade of blue._

_ Speaking of his eyes, as I watched the whites became blood red. Underneath them black veins protruded._

_ His fangs had shortened and where further apart than before but no less lethal looking._

_ "Hey Blondie." He said and lunged for my neck._

I woke up for real this time and sat bolt upright on my bed. My heart was beating out of my chest.

_What kind of dream was that? I what was up with the ending?_ I thought to myself.

Flopping back down onto my pillow I quickly discovered that it was going to very hard to get back to sleep. Why? That heat I had felt in the dream was still there.

It was a sad eco of the absolute dizzying desire that I had felt in the dream. But it promised to be impossible to ignore. I felt too hot and too cold at the same time and I couldn't seem to keep still.

Not knowing what to do about it I kept tossing and turning in my bed hoping that it would let up. It wasn't until I saw the sun rising through my bedroom curtains that I realized it wasn't going to go away.

In total I had slept for maybe two hours. Tomorrow, oops, I mean today I was going to be tired _and _horny (it felt weird using that word to describe myself. It made me feel kind of dirty). Great. Just great.

If Sarah called off again today I was going to kill her.

**So I'm trying to start incorporating Caroline's real personality in more. I hope it came out well. Also I hope the whole dream scene was good. I wanted it to be kinda steamy but not overtly in-your-face-sexy and cheesy. My goal for the entire story is to be kinda classy sexy if I can pull it off. On another note, can you guess who Bill turned into? Also, I can't remember whether I mentioned this in another author's note or not but Caroline is being forced to forget all of the visions of her real life and Sookie's memories almost as soon as she stops thinking about them (kinda like the Silence from Doctor Who). When she looks back after forgetting she remembers it as a hole in her memory and she calls it spacing out. Her dreams on the other hand are a different story. She will be able to remember her dreams and that's going to help her piece things together eventually. I hope you liked it! Please review and make suggestions! I want to know what you guys think!**


	8. Chapter 8:Jason You Should've Been There

**Sorry if the grammar on this one is a little screwed up. It was written at 2 am. I no english good when I tiredness. It's short and a little bit of a filler but gets inside Care's head a little. I've become obsessed with the game Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines. Anyone ever heard of it? (My advice: Don't buy it on Steam. Too many bugs. Just pay a bit extra and get it used off of Amazon) So that's why it might take me a little bit longer to update... that and that research paper I'm supposed to be doing... maybe I'll write about the psychology of procrastination... As usual I own nothing that you recognize.**

I flopped back against the flimsy plastic of my favorite blue sun chair. It wasn't even lunch time yet and I was already about to crash from exhaustion.

I had gotten out of bed at around six because I just couldn't stand lying there feeling that heat from the dream any longer. I figured maybe getting up and doing something would keep my mind off it.

After I got dressed I started cleaning the house. It had been a good solid week or two since I had last "worry cleaned," as my gran likes to call it, so there was plenty for me to do. I washed the dishes from last night (hey! It was a busy night! I forgot!), put in a load of laundry (whites only so they don't get dingy of course), dusted all of my gran's pictures and knick knacks, swept the floors and the porch, and washed the windows. The only pause I took was when Gran got up and insisted that I sit down and have some breakfast before I went on with my "therapy." (that's my brother's word for it).

When I was pretty much finished (the only thing left was the load of colored cloths that I had just put in the washer) I finally looked at the clock. It was only 11:00. Apparently I had been working like a mad woman. Jeez, this guy must have me seriously worked up.

_Ugh! This was supposed to keep me busy until I could go be busy at work!_

I had the night shift at Merlotte's tonight so I had the morning and the early afternoon free. Sam didn't call at ten when the bar opened so I guessed that Sarah hadn't call off work today (thank God! I wanted to be busy but I don't know if I would have survived a double shift today).

I was torn between going outside and enjoying the beautiful day and going back up to bed an attempting to take a nap. Eventually I decided to just do both.

Putting on my bathing suit (a rather adorable bikini decorated with strawberries) I grab my trusty sun chair and my radio and half marched, half tiredly staggered into the front yard.

And that is pretty much what led to be laying out in the sun thinking about Vampire Bill and the insane, kinda hot, but definitely weird dream I had the night before.

_So, I'm definitely attracted to Bill. No surprise there. I was pretty much a hormonal high school girl when I first saw him at the bar. But why did I react like that? I mean he's not the first good looking guy that I've ever seen. Hell, I've seen better looking guys in my favorite tv shows… Jared, Jensen, Misha, Ian, Paul, and Joseph! Yum! But even those guys didn't ever make me feel like that._

_Is it because he was actually in the same room? No, I met Jared at a convention while he was signing autographs and it wasn't like that with him… So is it because he's a vampire? That's probably closer to the truth but still not quite right. Hmm..._

_Seriously! What's my deal with this guy? I see him from across the bar and suddenly I'm obsessed? I've seen this happen to that character from that show Tara won't admit she watches unless she's at my house and it's on… Oh what's her name? Sookie something I think… Anyway, that ended up SO great for her didn't it? Getting used and bitten like that! Because that's what I want out of my relationship with Bill that isn't going to happen…_

_Ugh! Just Ugh!_

_And to top it off that dream last night. I guess it's a good thing that my mind doesn't really have any material to work with otherwise that could have gotten rated XXX really fast…_

_And what was with Not-Bill at the end? Do I know someone who looks like that and calls me Blondie? When I was in the dream I could have sworn that I did but now… I'm just not sure._

_Well, whoever he was he and dream Bill have done a pretty good job keeping me up and nice and tense. I'm seriously never going to be able to sleep like this and I'll suck at my job because of it and then Sam will fire me and then…. And then… I'll suck at my job… and Sam… will fire me… and Sam will… then I can come home… and take a nap… then I can get back… to the grill… in time for the comet day party… I can't miss it… maybe… Maybe that guy will be there… That'd show her… I can get guys too… That'd show Elena…_

I drifted off to sleep barely noticing that my weird half-awake thoughts had turned into a weird super realistic dream. I knew it was a dream because I couldn't hear the babble from everyone else's minds.

_Around me was a sort of carnival. There were signs saying something about a comet everywhere. Everything was amazingly happy but for some reason it made me sad and kinda nostalgic. Not-Bill even made an appearance but this time I was almost expecting him to be there in the dream and I wasn't even surprised when he vanished as soon as I went to talk to him. It was almost as if I knew that would happen._

The spell of the beautiful, yet creepily haunting, dream was broken by the crunching sound of a car on the gravel driveway. I didn't bother opening my eyes.

"Hey!" it was my brother Jason (well look what washed ashore before happy hour). I could tell he was in a huff about something. "How come you didn't tell me you beat up the Rattrays last night?"

"Seriously Jason? I haven't even seen you since it happened." I retorted, not even opening my eyes to glare at him.

"Well where's Gran?" he said, obviously intending on telling on me.

"Hanging up laundry out back. And you keep your voice down! I don't want her to know about it."

"Fortenberry couldn't wait til I got to work this morning to tell me all about it!" What? How the hell would he know about what happened?

"Hoyte? How the heck does he know?" I asked my brother.

"He went over to the rats last night to buy some weed." Oops, I guess I screwed up Hoyte's plans in my quest to save a life… or unlife? "Denise drove up like she wanted to kill somebody she was so mad."

_You can bet your ass she was!_ I thought.

"And the only way she'd sell him any weed was if he would drive Mack to the hospital in Monroe."

"Well did Hoyte tell you that Mack came after me with a knife?" I wanted the record straight as soon as possible.

"_Mother fucker!"_ that had done it. Jason was in pissed off big bro mode. "You want me to kick his ass?"

"Too late! I already did!" I said smiling over my sunglasses.

"What were you doing messing with him anyway?" Time to start spreading the Rats little nasty secret. Once Jason knew he would tell his buddies on the road crew and then the whole town would know in a matter of days, maybe even hours if enough of them came into the bar tonight.

"Well did you know that in addition to being drug dealers the Rats also happen to be vampire drainers?" The look on his face was priceless. "Yep! One of my customers last night was a vampire and they were draining him out in the parking lot. And I put a stop to that bullcrap."

"Caroline, you do not want to get mixed up with vampires, _trust me_." That set me off.

"_Seriously Jason! Shut up!"_ I hissed. "Even if you hate vampires you can't let trash like the Rats drain them! I mean come on! It's not like your syphoning gas out of a car! That's a thinking person with feeling and a life, or unlife or something like that. They would have left him in the woods to die!"

"Who fucking cares!" Jason said interrupting my tirade and making me even more upset. Why was I getting so worked up over this? I only barely knew one vampire, it wasn't like I or my best friend was one. "He's already dead!"

"That's not his fault!" I practically screamed jumping up to get right in my brother's face.

There was a brief pause in which Jason seemed to be thinking something over. I was tuning him out so his next question caught me off guard.

"What did he look like?"

"Umm… handsome, in a sorta old fashioned movie, _Gone with the Wind_ way." I said more than a little baffled at the change in the conversation.

"Was he bald headed?" What did that have anything to do with?

"No, he had really nice hair." _That I'd love to lace my finger through._

"Tattoos?" Okay, really Jason?

"None that I could see." _But boy would I like to find out if he has any._

Jason's obsession with what Bill looked like was not helping that feeling from last night calm down any. In fact it was making it worse.

Just then Gran called out to Jason. I felt relieved that that particular talk was now over.

Saved by the bell? More like save by Adele!

**Hoped you liked this part! I promise there's some Sookie coming soon. I'm close to finishing up the episode. One or two more chapters ought to do it. Then I'll start work on some TVD material. I'm going to try to give Sookie as many chapters as Caroline but I'm not sure how well it will go since Caroline's character in the show has her story pretty far spread in season one. It's going to be like a patch work quilt and won't exactly be running completely parallel with Caroline's story thus far (mostly because TB season one take place in a couple of weeks and TVD season 1 take pretty much a whole school year I think) Still taking suggestions on ships and all of that. I know what I'm doing with Caroline and I know how I'm starting Sookie off but I don't know where I want to go from there. I also kinda want to have a few ships for characters that aren't Care and Sook. You get a ship! and you get a ship! Everyone gets a ship because I'm giving away an armada! Review please! I don't like radio silence.**


	9. Chapter 9: Death of a Fang Banger

**Sorry TB 1x01 is taking so long. I don't want to cut anything out because a lot of what happens in this episode, such as what happens in this chapter, sets up events that I need in order for my plan to work. I'm going to put the rest of the episode into the next chapter so it's bound to be a really long one and it may take me a while to write and post. I'm sorry if this chapter is a bit boring but in my opinion it's necessary. Last time Jason showed up at Gran's house. But what had he been up to the night before? And what news is about to shake the town that just got it's first vampire? I own nothing.**

Jason was picking on me as we ate lunch. He was doing things like asking if I was going to eat something and then picking it up off my plate and eating it himself while telling me I need to start watching what I eat if I want to look good in my bathing suit. He could be seriously annoying sometimes but I've learned to deal with it (most of the time). It's his way of showing affection.

Gran had been talking on the phone in the living room for several minutes now. When she came back into the kitchen I could tell something was wrong. She didn't have her usual perky smile on.

"That was Evelyn Mason." She said with a grave voice. "Guess who was found strangled to death in her apartment."

Jason and I were silent. The images of all of my girlfriends ran through my mind. Which one of them was it? I knew it wasn't Tara, thank God, because she didn't have an apartment by herself and Gran had said only one girl was dead. This was the only time in my entire life that I was glad for her abusive alcoholic of a mother. I braced myself, wondering which girl in this small town I would have to say goodbye to.

The name sprung to my mind the second before Gran said it but I hadn't been reading her mind. Today seemed like it was going to be even weirder than yesterday. The girl who had died was none other than-

"Maudette Pickens!" my Gran said. Her voice had a small note of hysteria about it. Small towns like this weren't used to this kind of thing. Sure something happened every once and a while but it was more things like tragic car accidents, house fires, and drunken assault. Not murder. It wasn't unheard of but it definitely didn't happen often. This was going to shake up the town for a long time.

After the initial shock of the news faded the truth hit home. Maudette was dead. Someone I knew had been murdered in her own home.

"Oh my God…" I muttered.

"She didn't show up for work and wasn't answering her phone and so her boss called Bud Dearborne. He road over, got the manager to let him in, and they found her." She continued.

"I went to high school with Maudette." I said, feeling a little numb. In fact I felt too numb. No, I wasn't numb. It was a kind of absence of feeling. An echo of some emotion I should have been feeling. Was it grief? Yes, that was it. I should have been grieving. I should have been feeling at least a little grief over her, since I grew up with her, but I just didn't feel it.

Was I sad? Yes, it seemed horrible and sad to me that someone so young had everything taken from them before their time. Was I shocked? Yes, like I said: this stuff doesn't usually happen in small towns like Bon Temps. Was I scared? You bet your ass I was! If this turned out to be a serial killer I could be next on the list!

But strangely I felt no grief. It was as if I was watching a tv show. I felt for the character that had died but honestly I couldn't feel any actual grief for her. It was as if someone else had known her and gone to school with her. Was I in that much shock over this?

"Can you believe it?" Gran said. "A murder in Bon Temps…"

"Well why are you surprised?" Jason asked, shocking me a little. Why did he think this wasn't surprising? Maudette didn't have cancer or anything. No one had been expecting her to die let alone be strangled by someone in her apartment. "Now that we got ourselves a vampire…"

That did it. I was pissed at him. Being callous about Maudette's death? I could just chalk that up to Jason being himself and only caring about Jason. But blaming Bill for her death without any reason other than him being a vampire? That was bullshit and anyone with common sense would know it.

"Just because he's a vampire doesn't mean he's a murderer!" I shouted a bit defensively.

"Oh come on! Fang bangers go missing all the time in Shreveport, New Orleans. They never find them but everybody knows the vampires are killing em and disposing of the bodies."

I was about ready to kill him. How the hell I could be related to such a closed minded jerk was a mystery to me. Sensing the fact that an all-out screaming match was about to start up Gran interrupted the conversation between me and Jason.

"What's a 'fang banger'?" I didn't bother looking in her head to see if she actually knew or not. I knew my gran well enough to know that when Jason and I started arguing she would distract us any way she could. Sometimes it was giving us chores, other times it was taking one sending one of us to the store to pick up milk or something. Today she decided to ask us questions in hopes that answering them would keep us from fighting

Trying to keep my temper in check I answered her.

"It's like a vampire groupie." She gave me a look that clearly said she didn't know what that meant either. Either my gran had been living under a rock her entire life or she was one hell of an actress. "Men and woman that like to get bitten."

"My stars!" That one she had understood.

Her tactics had worked (at least a little). In the process of answering her question I'd been distracted from my anger long enough that it had died down enough for me to continue my conversation with Jason in a civil manner.

Now that I was thinking clearly something struck me as odd about Jason's comment. What would make Jason come that conclusion about her?

"Seriously? Maudette, a fan banger? How do you know that?" I asked him. I figured he had probably found out during one of his "sleep overs" with her.

"I don't know Caroline! The way that you just know things sometimes!" His words hurt me a little. He knew that I'd never liked it when people pointed out my powers. It made me feel like a freak. But I wasn't hurt enough to miss the extremely defensive tone of his voice. I would have bet my favorite pair of shoes that he knew something about Maudette.

That's when I remembered that Jason had gone home with Maudette last night.

_Oh God, please! Don't let it be Jason! Please don't let it be him! I don't care how much of a selfish asshole he is. He couldn't have… have done that! He must have left before! He had to of!_

Jason's whole attitude finally clicked into place. Acting defensive, being so callous, looking for someone to blame. I couldn't bring myself to think the actual words at the time. I couldn't actually believe that he had done that to Maudette. But one thing was certain: he had been with Maudette last night and because of that he could get into some serious shit whether or not he was innocent. And boy did he know it.

This was a cross roads point for me. What was I going to do? On one hand I could confront Jason about it. Tell him to go to the police or bring the police to him. On the other hand I could do nothing. Pretend that I didn't remember him leaving with Maudette, pretend that I didn't know that Jason was scared because she was dead, pretend that I didn't know Jason was probably the last person to see her alive. My gut told me that neither option was quite correct.

I was terrified. Was my brother a… (okay, time to face the music) a killer? Something deep within me screamed NO. It wasn't just me not wanting him to be a murderer. It was something more than that. It was almost like earlier when I had known Gran was going to say Maudette's name.

I didn't know how I knew Jason was innocent. I just did. I knew it with the same kind of certainty that I knew my name was Caroline. It was merely a fact. An irrefutable, conclusive fact. The sky is blue, triangles have three sides, humans need oxygen, and Jason did not kill Maudette Pickens

During my little epiphany Gran and Jason had continued on with the conversation which had taken a weird turn, something about hookers catering to vampire. Jason got up to leave.

"Thanks for lunch Gran!" Jason called over his shoulder as he left the kitchen.

I quickly got up and followed him. I had decided that I was going to prove him innocent and the best place to start was to get his version of what happened with Maudette last night.

Grabbing his shoulder's I spun him around and put my hands on the sides of his face. His thoughts flooded through my mind.

…_This can't be happening to me! How could I lose control like that? How could come she…_

He swatted my hands away.

"Don't you try that with me God dammit! I'm your brother!" He yelled before storming out the front door.

It was clear to me that regardless of what actually happened Jason truly believed that he had killed Maudette. In his mind it had been an accident. He hadn't gotten any sort of thrill from it. That was good I guess. It meant that he wasn't a serial killer in the making at least.

But I still couldn't seem to shut up the little voice inside of me that said Jason hadn't killed Maudette. I had the vague sense that something else had happened and Jason being Jason had gotten confused, or tricked by something into believing he had killed her. After all, my sweet brother was sometimes not the brightest bulb in the box.

That same little voice was now telling me that there was nothing I could do. The next few events in Jason's life would play themselves out and the truth would be known without my help. And right now there was nothing I could do for him. I would have to wait and see what happened.

The weird intuition was starting to freak me out. Why the hell was I trusting it and where the hell was it coming from?

I paused briefly in the foyer to process everything that had just happened. Then I took a deep breath, straighten up, put on a good face for Gran, and went to help clean up the dishes. After that I went upstairs to get ready for work.

I was in the middle of putting on my make up when Gran came into the room.

"What's up Gran?"

"Oh, I was just wondering how old you think the vampire is, the one you met last night."

"Honestly, I have no clue Gran." I said "Why do you want to know?"

"You think he might remember the war?" I didn't need to ask which war.

There was only one war the people of Bon Temps were obsessed with. Around here it was common to hear people call it the "War of Northern Aggresion" but most people know it as the America Civil War.

All of Bon Temps oldest and most notable families like the Stackhouses and the Bellefleurs had sent countless sons to fight in the war (Well, not countless. The number of boys sent was actually pretty small. But for a town this size it was a rather large number of men to send away.). As a result the war had an almost cult like fan club in the town. The club's name: The Descendants of the Glorious Dead, DGD for short. My gran was one of their most active members.

"I don't know. He might." I replied.

"Oh, if he does I would love to have him come speak to the Descendants of the Glorious Dead. You think he might want to?" I had to laugh a little at her question.

"I think he might have a bit of trouble showing up to the library at noon on a Thursday Gran. With him being a vampire and all." I smiled at the look on her face.

"We could have a special meeting at night! Or he could just come talk to me and I could tape his recollections!" She seemed so excited by the prospect. "Oh I am sure the other members would find it so interesting!"

She stated to giggle a little. I suspected part of it was her fangirling over the chance to meet someone that she considered to be living history. I was pretty sure the other part of it was her imagining the looks on the other members of the DGD's faces at the prospect of meeting a vampire (most of them were extremely anti-vampire, big surprise there). I found it impossible to resist that giggle.

"Well, I'll ask him if he comes back to Merlotte's." That made her happy. She kissed me on the cheek and happily made her way back down stairs.

**Again, sorry if this chapter is a bit boring. I just can't stand it when writers gloss over the scenes that set up a huge story arc. It's the little scenes like this that get the ball rolling. I didn't want it to simply be Caroline and Sookie living in different universes. I wanted it to be Caroline and Sookie living different lives and in life sometimes there are times like this when no action really happens and it's just all set up for what's to come. You can't just skip from huge moment to huge moment and say "for the past few weeks I had suspected this" without showing the character actually suspecting something during those few weeks. Now that I'm done ranting I'd like to do a few thank you's.**

**To:**

**Kittywithfangs, Lady-Kiki-Theevilmastermind, Rhea2022, Tinyflyer02, psuedonick, and xrockerchique**

**for following this story.**

**To:**

**xrockerchique**

**for favoriting this story.  
**

**To:**

**Tinyflyer02, Leah, and ssnyder1995**

**for making reviews.**

**And lastly I would like to thank ssnyder1995 for putting up with my shit in real life and not rolling her eyes every time I begin brainstorming new fic ideas and new plot point aloud in her presence.**

**I would also like to add that if ssnyder1995 would like me to read any of her works on Wattpad she must do three things:**

**1)Finish reading what's currently posted for this story.**

**2)Follow this story so that I know you're reading it.**

**3)Do not ever let those stories with me as the main character see the light of day. I'm honestly afraid of what you may have written and do not wish to make it public. Yes, this is a shameless way of me making sure you're reading this story. (PS. If you publish any of those stories they will be the last thing of yours that I ever read. I'll only read them so that I get a clear idea of where on the scale your punishment will fall (1 being I'll write a fic with you in it just to embarrass you and 10 being I'll write a fic centered around you that will make 50 shade of grey look like a children's book). I hope this has gotten your attention.**

**For anyone who is not ssnyder1995:**

**I am incredibly sorry you had to read that last one. She's my best friend and has apparently written several stories about me (that aren't exactly PG) instead of reading my fic like she said I would. That was a shameless attempt to see if she's actually reading it like she said she would. I expect retaliation within the week. *checks to see if bags are completely packed and looks up the address for Sam and Dean's bunker**laughs because ssnyder1995 will have no idea if this is where GwenRhosyn13 is actually going***


	10. Chapter 10: Fight! Fight! Fight!

**I'd like to apologize if the chapter before was boring. This one should have a lot of action in it though! It's my longest chapter yet! I've finished off TB 1X01 and started a little on 1x02 because I didn't like the way the show split the one scene. I hope you like it and I hope I 'm getting Caroline's character right! I don't own anything you recognize from True Blood or the Vampire Diaries.**

"Arrested?! For what?!" the misleading question slipped easily from my mouth. I was genuinely shocked that Jason had been arrested. But I had a pretty good idea of what it was for. I figured it was probably better if I pretended not to know.

I didn't want to get carted down to the Sheriff's office on suspicion of being an accomplice or have people questioning me and finding out about my telepathy. Some people knew (but never actually talked to me about it) and some people suspected (I'm looking at you Andy Bellefleur) but I wasn't about to have the whole town think I was a freak (well, more of a freak than most of them already did).

It was easy to feign ignorance and surprise because I honestly didn't know that they had anything to bring him on (Hopefully it would just be something like "So-and-so saw you leave Merlotte's with Maudette last night." and there would be evidence saying someone else killed her.). I hadn't seen his arrest coming even though I probably should have.

"I don't know." Dawn, the bearer of bad news, said.

"Care!" I heard Lafayette call out from behind me. "Sorry about your brother."

_Jeez Louise! Does everybody know? How did they all find out before me? _ I thought.

"Seriously! How did everyone know about this before I did?" I said angrily.

"Well, I was there, baby girl, and I saw him get carted away." Okay, Lafayette had a good excuse, but he still should have told me before now.

"And I was complaining to Arlene about Jason hanging up on me when we were making a date and not calling me back and that when she told me." Great, if Arlene had told Dawn she probably had told half the town by now.

"Arlene? How does she know?" My anger was steadily increasing. At this rate everyone was going to think of my brother as a convicted murderer. And why the hell was I the last to know about this?

"I guess René told her." Dawn said.

I spun around and began my march to the main part of the bar where René was currently drinking with Arlene (who had the night off) and Hoyte. I was going to grill him for details since he knew so much that I didn't.

At that point Dawn finally figured out that I was upset that they hadn't told me first.

"Besides, we figured you just…" Her words died on her lips. That's what always happened any time anyone came close to acknowledging my little ability. They didn't want to admit that something like that was real. It also said volumes about the people I considered to be my friends.

They couldn't talk to me about my telepathy but they could talk to each other about it behind my back. Since Dawn had said "we" I inferred that there had been some discussion about whether they should tell me or if I already knew.

I decided it was time to acknowledge the elephant in the room. Force Dawn to actually finish her sentence.

I stopped, turned back around to face her, and said "I just what, Dawn?"

There was a moment of silence so pregnant that it could have beat Octomom in a baby bump size contest.

"Sweetie…" She finally said. "Didn't you just know already?"

My anger started to boil over. How was I supposed to know everything?

"Seriously Dawn! I'm not _psychic_!" I all but yelled as I stormed out of the back room.

René, who was unjustly the focus of my anger and this point, was at the other end of the bar playing pool with Hoyte when I rounded the corner. Arlene was sitting on one of the stools near the pool table complaining about how it was her night off and she was just giving her paycheck back to Sam (That was her own fault in my opinion).

"What happened to my brother, René?" I asked, interrupting their good time.

"Awwww… Hell, I promised him I wasn't gonna tell ya you…" René said in his thick creole accent.

"What happened?" I asked sharply.

This time Hoyte answered my question.

"Oh, uh, well… ah, Bud Dearborn and Andy Bellefleur, ah, asked him some questions and then they just threw him in the back of the squad car." I liked Hoyte. You could always get a straight answer out of him (even if the answer was given in a timid "Please don't hit me" kind of way).

"So you don't even know for a fact that they arrested him?" I asked.

"Well they… they didn't cuff him or nothing." René said. That made the knot in my stomach relax a little. René made sense.

If they actually had proof or even a good reason to suspect that Jason had killed her they would have put him in hand cuffs before taking him away. I figured that Sheriff Dearborn and Andy were just messing with him in order to get revenge for all of the trouble he'd caused them in the past.

But it still didn't change the fact that now the idea in everyone's heads was that Jason had done it.

"Caroline I am so sorry." Arlene said. She was drunk and when Arlene's drunk she says the stupidest things in the most irritating way possible. Her voice grated on my nerves and made me angrier.

"For what Arlene? Seriously? You guys are acting like Jason's already been convicted for killing Maudette and none of us has any clue what they were talking to him about!" I said hotly. "Bud Dearborn made a _mistake_! That's all there is to it!"

"Yeah, it has to be! Jason's a real standup guy!" Hoyte said in agreement.

Hoyte was my brother's best friend. I really appreciated him standing up for Jason like he always does but I had always thought that he had a little too high an opinion of my brother. He basically hero worshipped him. Jason was, in general, a good guy. An idiotic, womanizing, asshole, but in his heart a good guy. But he was anything but a "standup guy".

"No he's not Hoyte." I said tiredly. "He's selfish, egotistical, and a complete horndog but he is _not _a killer!"

Another awkward moment of silence came after that (place your bets! How many can Caroline rack up tonight?).

Just then I felt a tingle run up my spine and I felt that vibration that could only mean one thing.

I spun around and there he was. Bill was standing by one of my tables and was just about to sit down. An echo of the heat from this morning ghosted through my body.

As I watched him sit down I found myself walking forward. I also found that the shock of seeing him again had, for the moment, knocked out my shields. I was hearing everyone's thoughts in the bar. But honestly, I couldn't bring myself to care.

From Tara came

…_Now just look at that like she's walking down the aisle on her God damn wedding day…_

From Sam came

_…He's got her in his sights. I need to protect her…_

Eventually it became too hard for me to pick out any one "voice" in particular and focus on it. I just kept getting small snippets from everyone around me. Most of it was centered on how dangerous vampires were and how I should stay away no matter how good this one looked.

"Good evening miss Stackhouse." He said smoothly.

He pulled out the chair next to him for me and, not knowing what else to do, I sat down. The metal voices around me reached a roar.

_… Ain't right him being here with normal people…_

…_I always thought she was nice but I just wonder what kind of good Christian girl would even look at a vampire…_

_ …Oh, I don't think he look that kinda scary to me…_

_ …It look like she like em tall, dark, and _dead_…_

_ …Who is that and why ain't he talking to me…_

_ …that whole Stackhouse family ain't nothing but trash…_

Bill held out his hand to me and for some reason that didn't logically make sense I took it. Instantly the voices stopped. It was as if touching him had put my walls back up. I sat that there with a smile on my face, eyes closed, enjoying the silence.

I opened my eyes to see him staring at me. It wasn't intense like before but it still made my brain turn to mush.

"Your hand is cold…" I said stupidly.

He gave a chuckle "Yes, uh… I'm afraid I'm not as warm as the men you must be accustomed to."

"What men?" I asked.

_Oh shit! Did I seriously just say that out loud?_

After my third awkward silence of the night I pulled my hand out from his. The mental voices of the others in the bar returned but I had a better handle on myself so it was only a dull hum.

"What can I get for you tonight?" I asked, breaking the silence.

He didn't saying anything at first. He almost said something then thought better of it. When he finally said something he caught me off guard again but this time I didn't lose control.

"What are you?"

_Seriously? Again with this?_

"I already told you: I'm a waitress." I said, a little miffed.

"No. You're something more than that." He said. "You're something more than human."

What he didn't know was that I had toyed with that idea since I was old enough to understand that not everyone had telepathy. It was both my greatest fear and my greatest pride. I was stunned that he acknowledged that I was different. Normally people just called me crazy and left it at that. No one actually recognized that I had powers normally.

All I could say was "Excuse me…?"

"Caroline…" Instantly I could feel the room get about ten degrees warmer (or was it just me?) and I felt a little light headed. How the hell could he do that by just saying my name?

"That's a beautiful name, Caroline." He looked almost sad as he repeated my name. "Are you named after anyone?"

"Nope. My mom just thought it was a pretty name. All the women in my family are name Elizabeth or something like that…" I babbled too distracted and confused for his question and abrupt change of subject to seem weird.

"May I call on you sometime?"

I gave him a blank look. Being obsessed with stuff like _Gone With the Wind_ I knew what the phrase meant but I was having trouble processing it. Guys usually didn't ask me out. Especially like _that._

"Call on _me_? I asked. Did he mean me or the other Caroline Stackhouse?

"May I come and visit with you at your home?" He said.

"I know what it means I just…" I cut myself off before I could make a fool of myself. "Sure! My Grandmother would like to meet you!"

_So much for not looking like an idiot!_ I thought. He obviously meant us being alone. That thought sent shivers up my spine.

There was another silent moment (four those playing along at home that make four!).

Not sure what to say to break the silence I blurted out the first thing that came to mind.

"That reminds me, could I talk to you after work? There's a favor I need to ask you."

He smiled and said "Of course. After all, I am in your debt."

"It's not exactly a favor for me, it's for my grandmother. If you'll still be around would you mind meeting me around back of the bar when I get off of work? Say about…. Mmm… 1:30?" No need to mention that I should be scared at the thought of meeting up with some guy I met yesterday alone behind a bar in the middle of the night.

"I'd be delighted." Why did he look like he just scored the winning touchdown when he said that?

Another awkward silence (number five) ensued because both of us had run out of things to say. This time he was the one to break it.

"Do you realize that every person in this establishment is staring at us right now?"

I looked away from his face for the first time since I had sat down and saw that he was absolutely right. Every single person in the bar was staring right at us.

Some were like Hoyte and had expressions of genuine curiosity, others were like Arlene and had their mouths open, catching flies, but the majority of them had pretty near murderous glare on their faces like Tara did. Sam looked like he was about ready to jump over the bar and throw Bill bodily out of the bar.

"Oh they're just staring at me because my brother's in trouble with the police." I said trying to dismiss the fact that half of the bar looked like they were about ready to see if you could lynch a vampire. My explanation sounded lame and false even to me. I wasn't convincing anyone.

Speaking of Jason, he had seemed convinced earlier that a vampire, specifically Bill, had something to do with Maudette's death. I didn't think it was Bill but I felt like I needed to ask just to make sure. But how to ask without accusing him?

"Um… Bill this may seem like an odd question but did you know Maudette Pickens?"

"I did not." He replied. But before I could ask anything else he was right back to his previous topic. "They are staring at us because I am a vampire and you are mortal."

As he finished speaking I realized that he had gotten incredibly close to me. Our faces only had a few inches between them. If either of us moved to far forward we would be practically kissing.

Speaking of kissing, he kept staring at my lips (I think, maybe it was my neck. I'm not sure. I was kinda distracted by the hot guy less than six inches from my face) like he wanted to kiss me right then and there.

_This guy might as well have invented the word "swoon."_ I thought to myself.

"Well who cares what they think."

"Well, I want to make this town my home, so, I do." Oops. Don't I look like an idiot now?

_Wait a minute… Does that mean I'm going to see him around?_ The thought made me happier than it should have.

"I'll see you at one thirty." He said. He abruptly left after that as if an idea had suddenly struck him.

_What was that all about? I hope I didn't offend him or something…_

As he left I came back to reality and the mental voices of all of the bar patrons came crashing back into my head.

Most of it was along the lines of _Caroline what are you doing? You should know better. I thought she was a good girl. Run as fast as you can before it's too late._ Some of it just plain disgusted me.

Between the guy in the corner wanting to stake Bill and beat some sense into me and the guy by the door who wanted to watch Bill and I "do it" (which I'll admit had me wondering if that would ever be a possibility) I was about ready to run screaming from the building. There was even one woman who was wondering if the rumors about vampire hypnosis were true and if Bill had just used it on me.

The voices started to overwhelm me and I fought to get my shields back up. I didn't even notice that Sam had come up to the table until he had grabbed hold of my arm and started dragging me towards his office. He was beyond pissed at me.

As soon as we were out of sight and earshot of the customers he started his little rant. I could see all the employees of Merlotte's, both on and off duty, following us out of the corner of my eye. They were worried for me. Not just because of what had happened with Bill but because of how angry Sam was right now. None of us had ever seen him like this and they wanted to make he wasn't going to go Hulk on me. Plus this would make great gossip for the rest of the week.

"Caroline you are being a very stupid girl!" He hissed.

"Excuse me? I can take care of myself! Who asked you anyway?" I shot back while trying unsuccessfully to wretch my arm from his surprisingly strong grip.

"You think so? Mack could have seriously cut you up last night!" he yelled as he practically tossed me into his office.

"Seriously? How do you know what Mack woulda done! You weren't there!"

"Now you're setting up a date with a vampire? Do you have a death wish?" He screamed at me.

"No I do not!" I screamed back. "I just think that judging vampires based on a few of them that do terrible shit is morally wrong! Not all of them are killers and sadists like people like to believe!"

"Well I will not let you put yourself or this bar in danger, I WON'T!"

_Oh my God, now I've done it. Now's the point where Sam breaks and tells me to get lost. It was only a matter of time before I lost this job for some reason too. Only this time it has nothing to do with my telepathy._

"I'm I fired Sam? Because it sure sounds to me like that's what you're saying."

He passed as if trying to translate what I had just said.

"N-NO!" he finally responded. He obviously was confused about how I had arrived at that conclusion. His next words came out in an angry rush. "But next time you think someone being harmed in the parking lot _pick up the phone and call the police! DO NOT GO OUT THERE ALONE LIKE A GOD DAMN VIGILANTE!"_

That broke my composure. The disappointment and anger was crystal clear in his tone. The anger I could take. It was the disappointment that cracked my mask of composure. I felt like a failure hearing those words. Like I wasn't good enough in Sam's eyes. It killed me. For the first time ever I started to cry in front of my boss. I couldn't help it.

Through my sobs I heard him sigh heavily. Then I felt his arms wrap around me. It felt warm and safe.

"Don't you know I couldn't stand to lose you?" he muttered softly.

In that moment I thought of Sam not as my boss but as one of the best friends I had ever had. He had given me a shot when everyone else in town had warned him not to hire "Crazy Caroline." He was always there when I needed him and was always making sure I was okay.

For a split second I saw in my mind's eye someone else hugging me. A guy with brown hair that was unusually styled but that suited him all the same. He was gorgeous and definitely my type (old fashion handsome) but it was obvious that we were just friends. The weirdest thing was that he looked a bit like Not-Bill from my dream last night. They could have been brothers.

My mind blanked as Sam's thoughts interrupted my own.

_...She feels so warm. I can't help it! I want you! Damn! So soft! God, I love the way you smell! I love you Caroline and I always have and I want to tell you the truth…_

Just then Tara burst into the room.

"Caroline are you out of your ever loving mind? That vampire wants you for dinner!" she yelled, slamming the door.

"I just-"

"Well I won't let you just walk into his trap! No ma'am! Over my dead body! You mean too much to me!"

_Don't you look at me like that when I'm only looking out for you!_

Oh great. Now I was getting yelled at mentally too!

_I never noticed how you and Jason have such different eyes… He has such sweet eyes… he could never kill anybody…_

Okay, I didn't need to hear this from her right now.

"Seriously Tara! Give up all ready! Jason is never going to care about you the way you care about him!" In my anger I forgot about my number one rule. Oh well, Tara and Sam already knew about my telepathy even if they didn't talk about it.

"What the fuck! You…" Tara gasped, realizing what had just happened. "You made a promi- You stay out of my head!"

At that point both of their mental voices rammed themselves into my skull. I had no choice but to hear Tara thinking

…_You promised me you would never do that again and you don't know maybe Jason will get shook up by this Maudette Pickens thing and want a real woman…_

and Sam thinking

… _Oh Caroline… I know how hard for her… it's gotta be such a burden…_

"Oh just shut up both of you! Stop bossing me around! Seriously! I am a grown woman and no one gets to decide what I do except for me!"

I pushed my way through them like I was leaving a saloon in one of those old western movies and made my way angrily back into the bar.

No one talked to me for the rest of the night unless they had to. Sam and Tara knew I was pissed at them and everyone else either didn't want to end up on my list or was angry with me for what happened with Bill just like Sam and Tara had been.

I worked in super speed. All of my customers got their food and drinks quickly and the tables were clear before they had even walked out of the door. Unfortunately for me it's smiling and being cheerful that gets you the big tips. Tonight I wasn't going to be taking home a lot of extra cash.

Since I had to meet Bill out back at 1:30 I volunteered to be the one to stay and help Sam lock up. Everyone, except for Sam, had long since gone home when I walked out the back door to meet Bill. In the few seconds that I was alone before Sam followed me out the door I had a strange feeling. Something bad was about to happen right here in the parking lot. Something that was going to hurt.

I shook the thought from my mind as Sam locked the door and turned around to face me.

"Caroline…" he said.

"Sam…" I said, imitating him. It was childish. I know. But I wasn't in the mood to act mature with him right now.

He let it go without a comment and for a split second I thought I was going to get an apology. Apparently he thought better of it and simply said "Night" instead before walking back to his trailer behind the bar.

I a huff I briskly walked around to the employee section of the parking lot on the other side of the bar. I figured since Bill wasn't here yet I was going to have to wait. The night was abnormally cool for it being summer and I decided to grab my sweater out of the back of my car.

As I put my key into the lock of my old, beat up, yellow car I heard a scuffling noise from the edge of the lot opposite my car. Thinking it might be Bill I walked forward a little ways to investigate. I looked around and saw nothing…

…Nothing but _the Rattrays' car_!

That same instant I felt someone push me down to the ground.

_Oh shit no! This cannot be happening!_

All of a sudden a foot came flying out of nowhere and landed straight on my diaphragm, knocking the wind out of my lungs. I felt another set of feet start kicking me from the other side. I rolled around, half in shock, trying desperately to get away. But every time I tried to get up another kick would send me straight back down into the dirt.

I lifted my head to look at my attackers, even though I had a good idea of who it was already. Mack Rattray was on my left and Denise was on my right. They looked like they were having a blast and had every intention of making good on Denise's threat from last night.

Mack foot connected with my face and I tasted blood. My nose exploded in pain and I was temporarily blinded while my brain registered that he had just broken my nose.

I was praying desperately, hoping for rescue, looking for ways to escape but seeing no way out of this.

The kicks and hits just kept coming and coming and I knew that if someone didn't stop them they were going to kill me.

"Where's your fucking chain now?" Mack taunted.

"Cunt!" Denise screamed.

Denise stopped kicking for a second to bend down and rip out my hair tie (and a good chunk of my hair with it) while saying "Dumbass pony tail!"

The kicking resumed but the pain took on an other worldly quality. I still felt it but I felt numb at the same time. I must have been close to passing out.

"Here we go!" Mack shouted, winding up to kick with all his force. I tried to brace myself but it did no good.

I heard an awful crack come from the place on my spine where his steel toed boot connected. Suddenly the pain from my legs was gone. At that point I was still in too much pain to realize what that meant.

Things started fading in and out then. I thought I heard what sounded like them having a couple moment over my broken, soon to be dead, body. Then something that sounded like growling.

The next thing I knew Mack was saying "Well fuck you too Fido!" while pointing a gun at someone. With all my remaining strength I twisted my torso around and grab on to Mack's leg hoping to make him stumble and miss whatever he was aiming at.

I held on as tight as I could and pulled with what little of my strength remained… only to have make be pulled _upward_ out of my grasp.

I saw Mack go flying through the air and land at the base of a tree breaking his legs.

He had just enough time to say "What the fuck…" Before some unseen force broke his neck.

What happened next was a bit fuzzy since my brain was starting to shut off. Blackness was starting to cover my eyes and the sound was fading in and out like a bad radio. I was fighting to stay conscious.

It sounded like Denise was trying to run from whatever had killed Mack, and she didn't succeed. I heard a distinct, high pitched scream and then a thud on the other side of the parking lot. Then there was silence.

The last things that registered in my head where the whine of a dog and someone picking me up gently as if I were the world's most fragile doll. Then it all went black.

For some reason in my last split second of consciousness I was afraid of this blackness. Somehow I knew that I would wake up from it and when I did my entire world would change. Things would be darker and brighter, better and worse, terrible and amazing all at once. I knew I would do things that I had never even dreamed of doing before.

And all of it, all of the happiness and pain and change, was on the other side of that blackness. It was like a black curtain, waiting to open on Act II of my life. And it scared me shitless.

**Action packed chapter! Yeah! I hope you liked it. I personally love the ending bit because Caroline has lost consciousness and woken up to find her entire world changed before. I see this last scene as another parallel between her and Sookie (although one could argue that the changes set in before hand for both of them. I'm just saying that the point where Sookie passes out and the point where Katherine kills Caroline mark the permanence of those changes). So the next ten chapters or so are going to be from Sookie's point of view. This is where things start getting tricky for me since I have two different stories running parallel with each other but in different time frames. Sookie's part is going to have a lot more jumping around since Caroline's character only made spotty appearances through out the first season. Thanks for reading! Please review and tell me what you think!**


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